


CALL OUT

by stormy1990



Series: Story Of The Underworld [1]
Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Johnny's Jr., KAT-TUN (Band), Love-tune, SixTONES (Band), Snow Man (Japanese Band)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:40:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 64,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9158491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: Ueda and Taiga had to face a lot of difficult situations since they had left the North Tokyo Fight Club to travel over Japan. But while they were still somehow able to handle their own problems the appearance of some new companions should bring their biggest challenge upon them. New enemies and fights beyond rules were things they had  experienced a lot already, but what if there was no chance for them to do so together? Don't break, don't give in! But would they be able to stand strong and take the challenge on their own?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So here we go with the Sequel of the "Tokyo Fight Club Chronicles"!  
> As I explained before already this sequel will have 4 parts, the first 3 are simultaneously, while all the stories will end up together again in the 4th part!
> 
> Call Out - Ueda/Taiga  
> Comeback - FumaKen  
> War Child - Nikaido/Yasui  
> Combat - all
> 
> I will post Comeback after I finished posting Call out (and so on), bc I have no time to write and post them all at the same time, sorry^^"
> 
> Have fun reading, but be prepared for the usual grammar/spelling mistakes ;)

“I am so going to kill him!” Ueda hissed after Taiga had walked into their room and failed in hiding the injury he had on his upper arm, of course the older one had noticed it right away.

“It’s not a big deal, just leave it as it is! We were planning on leaving in two days anyway, right?” Taiga tried to calm him down and blocked the door so that Ueda couldn’t storm out.

“So just because we are leaving I should allow them to treat you like this?”

“It’s not like it would be the first time, for neither of us! And it won’t be the last time either!”

“But-”

“Tatsuya, please could we drop this topic? You know that we can’t change their opinion about us if they find out about our relationship. It’s sad, but unfortunately true that some people find us...disgusting.” Taiga made a weird grimace on the last word, but it was the truth after all.

Two months have passed since they have left the north Tokyo fight club and they were moving northwards since Taiga had said that he never saw more snow than the few snowflakes which fell in Tokyo over winter. So Ueda decided that they would travel towards Aomori. It was already December and they took their time, because there would be snow falling in this region soon as well and it would be enough for them to reach Aomori in January or February. But unfortunately not all the experiences they made since their adventure had started were pleasant. Ueda had of course warned the younger one and it wasn’t like Taiga hadn’t experienced enough hardship in his life until now to be prepared for a lot of things, but it was the first time that they were actually facing a new path together and even though they didn’t shove it in anyone’s face, they weren’t really hiding their relationship either. Unfortunately that brought more trouble towards them than they had thought. Taiga had even dyed his hair back to black just to attract less attention. The only reason he had dyed it blonde in the first place had been actually to piss Ueda off and he had completely succeeded with it. When Taiga had realized that he had suddenly developed deeper feelings for Ueda he had tried to approach him, but of course he had been pushed away. Dying his hair had been something like a sulky teenager reaction and since then they had been stuck in their “before-relationship” stage until Kentaro had arrived. Now that their relationship was finally proceeding in a steady way, he didn’t really need to take actions like this anymore to get Ueda’s attention.

The first time their relationship had been discovered at a workplace their boss had kicked them out the same night, leaving them without a shelter for the night and even without their last payment, which made Ueda freak completely. Taiga took it all a little bit calmer, even though he was obviously hurt by everyone’s reaction as well, but they were used to it, weren’t they? Nikaido and Kentaro had to face a lot more hardship until now, but they still continued and Taiga was also not willing to back out just because some people wouldn’t understand.

They were working at a small village for a week already, helping with fixing some buildings. But today one of the younger workers had cornered Taiga after Ueda had left earlier and he had confronted him with his thoughts about their relationship, because he had seen them in the dorms together, which all workers shared. But Taiga answered without any outright, because why should he hide it? Unfortunately the worker hadn’t taken it as lightly as Taiga wanted him to and he started yelling at him for being weird and when Taiga had reacted way calmer than he thought he would the other one had gotten even angrier and told him to leave the village. Of course Taiga had refused, but before he could end the conversation the other one had pushed him into a pile of pipes on their construction site through which he cut open a long wound on his upper arm. Luckily the other one had left him alone after that, but had told him clearly that if they didn’t leave the village that it wouldn’t end with a small wound next time.

And of course Taiga hadn’t been able hide it from Ueda, because even though he had bandaged the wound and tried to hide it under his jacket, everything on his face had given away that something wasn’t right.

“Pack your stuff,” Ueda said suddenly and turned throwing all his belongings into his bag without another word. Taiga just nodded and turned towards his bed to pack his things as well. He needed more time than usually, because his thoughts were drifting off the whole time until he gave up for a moment and just stared down on his bag. He let out a small sigh and the next moment arms wrapped around his upper body.

“We can always turn around and head back,” Ueda started, but Taiga shook his head right away, searching for one of Ueda’s hands to entwine their fingers before he rested his head against the older one’s chest. Sure it was hard, but it was an experience he needed to make. He had hidden in his shell long enough. It was time to face life straight on again.

“If we go back now the others will laugh at me for the rest of my life for giving up this easily, especially Juri, trust me” Taiga replied with a light smile and Ueda let out a small chuckle on that.

“Also true, not that I wouldn’t turn his training into hell for that.”

This time Taiga also chuckled and turned around in Ueda’s arms to be able to reach out for his cheek. He stroke over his face as if it had been an eternity that he got the chance to do it and Ueda just kept looking at him as Taiga’s fingers traveled down to his lips. Just as Taiga leant forward Ueda moved as well and met him halfway for an eager kiss. The younger one threw his arms around his neck right away and parted his lips before Ueda could even try to deepen the kiss. Ueda stepped closer and put his arms around Taiga’s hips to make it easier for him to drop on the bed without their lips losing contact. Ueda crawled on top of him right away and broke the kiss just to move his lips to the boy’s neck. The first moan escaped the younger one as he bit him in the earlobe seconds later and the way Taiga’s hands moved under the latter’s shirt signaled him that he didn’t want to leave it at just kissing.

It wasn’t like they had planned this, after all they were about to leave, but all the other workers were at the construction site and they would leave anyways, so who cared if they would get discovered?

Both of them were more than impatient which made the foreplay really short. They didn’t even strip out of their shirts and their pants remained around their legs where they weren’t in the way anymore. Ueda pushed in quite roughly, but Taiga didn’t mind at all. He rocked his hips against his right away and didn’t even try to stop his moans, which made Ueda move faster right away. They were already so out of breath that they could just share short kisses and soon they gave up and Ueda buried his teeth on Taiga’s jawline instead and the boy dug his fingers into the latter’s back in response.

It didn’t take longer than a few minutes for both to come and Ueda raised his head to be able to look at Taiga who was still breathing hard and left his eyes closed for a moment. It wasn’t like they did it that rushed for the first time, over the past months this had become something like their personal stress management, but Ueda still felt kind of guilty each time it happened.

Ueda sat up and dressed again without another word and for a moment they stayed silent. Taiga closed his pants as well, but didn’t sit up. Instead he looked at Ueda with a kind of absentminded look while the latter rested his face in his palms.

“I’m sorry…” Taiga let out and it took Ueda a moment to realize what he had said. He turned to face the younger one with a stern glare, because it wasn’t the first time that he apologized without having any reason to do so.

“How often do I have to tell you not to apologize?”

“You can’t deny that my presence makes this travel a lot more complicated than when you traveled alone.”

“It’s different, yes. But not complicated! It’s the others who make things complicated not you, so stop apologizing!”

Taiga opened his mouth to complain, but Ueda stood up from the bed with a groan and Taiga bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything. In the end he would just make Ueda even angrier and that wasn’t what he wanted. After all he didn’t want to go back like this, he wanted to travel the whole way with him, but if he continued feeling insecure the whole time, maybe Ueda would drag him back to the fight club to make sure that he was fine.

Taiga stood up as well and approached Ueda who was packing the rest of his stuff. He hugged the older one from behind and rested his head against his back, on which the latter let out a sigh.

“Are you sure your wound is okay?”

“Yes, don’t worry. It will be fine in a few days,” Taiga replied before Ueda turned around so that Taiga stepped back. Ueda moved his hand up to the younger one’s cheek and gave him a brief smile before he leant in for a short kiss.

“Then let’s go, if we leave now we can make it to the next bigger city before nightfall.”

Taiga just nodded and got his stuff before they left this place behind as well. Not all the places they visited were connected to such bad memoires. There had been one really nice family which let them stay for a week when there was a typhoon approaching. They owned a farm and let them work there and gave them shelter and food in return. The older couple had been really fond of Taiga and Ueda had astounded him a lot with his friendly attitude towards them. But after all he had been traveling a lot before and he was way more relaxed than he could ever be in the fight club. All the responsibilities he had to carry before were forgotten for now. The only responsibility which remained for him was to protect Taiga.

***

“Compared to this all our other dorms were luxury,” Taiga let out as he stepped into the room with 6 stock beds. He threw his bag on top of a free one, but the squeaking noise it made when he jumped on it made him regret his choice right away.

“Trust me it could be even worse,” Ueda explained as he took the bed under Taiga.

“How bad?”

“The worst place I've ever stayed at was an old farm house with nothing more than straw on the ground to sleep and a roof which let the lightest raindrops through. And it was typhoon season. You can imagine that it didn't matter if I was inside or outside.”

Taiga escaped a chuckle on the thought of Ueda looking crestfallen every morning and of course the older one had realized his teasing look on which he leant with his hands on the bed next to Taiga’s knees.

“If you find it that funny how about I make you stay at such a place in the next city?” Ueda asked with a smirk on which Taiga leant forward to put his arms around Ueda’s neck.

“As long as you stay with me everywhere is fine.”

“Oh, so romantic today,” Ueda replied with a teasing smile on which Taiga hit him slightly on the head. Ueda reached out for his stomach to tickle him, but Taiga tried to push him away trough which he fell off the bed right into Ueda’s arms. The latter caught him and started laughing on Taiga’s sulking expression.

“Maybe I should let you stay at such a place alone, while I try my luck with some nice family. After all I'm charming enough to make them let me stay, but you?” Taiga teased on which the older one pulled him even closer so that their faces were just inches away from each other.

“As if you could survive without me for longer than a day.”

“Is that a challenge?” The younger one asked while playing with the hem of Ueda's shirt.

“You want to try?”

“If that means getting separated from you then no,” Taiga replied as he grabbed Ueda by the shirt to pull him closer and the latter chuckled playfully before leaning forward.

The next moment the door opened and before Taiga could even move Ueda had stepped back and leant down to open his bag as if nothing had happened. Taiga blinked in confusion before his mind caught up to the situation and he turned to face the two boys which had just entered the room. They were in a conversation and it seemed like they still hadn't noticed that there were other people in the room.

“Could you stop telling the chief how to do his work?” The one with longer brown hair asked of the other one. But the one with black short hair just made a weird face at him before crossing his arms in front of the chest.

“And let him ruin the construction?”

“That is not our concern. We are just here to work for a few days and not to become the new chief here!”

“Then we should keep going northwards right away, because I will throw him off his own construction the next time he tells a worker to put the nails in from the upper side first! How can he be a chief when he doesn’t even know that it is the most stable for the construction to put them from a 40 degree angle? The weight on the side of the pillars will be reduced about 30% like this, not to forget…”

“Okay, okay got it! Could you stop now?”

“But-”

“Ryohei stop, okay? I have a headache already, don’t make it even worse…” The boy turned finally away from the door to get away from his friend, but stopped as he realized that Ueda and Taiga were looking at them with a kind of confused, but also amused look.

“Oh, new arrivals?” The boy asked and Ueda nodded.

“We just arrived from one of the smaller cities from the south,” Ueda explained.

“Where did you original come from?”

“Tokyo,” Taiga replied with a light smile.

“Wow that’s a far travel, what are you doing up here? Wait, no forget it! How rude of me, we should introduce ourselves first. My name is Watanabe Shota and the over-motivated worker over there is Abe Ryohei.”

“I’m Taiga and the grumpy looking guy next to me is Ueda,” Taiga replied and got hit on the back of the head immediately. The same happened to Watanabe who hadn’t seen that Abe had stepped up to him before he hit him.

“I’m not grumpy!”

“And I’m not over-motivated!”

Watanabe and Taiga looked at each other for a moment before they both burst out laughing.

“I see we have similar problems with our company,” Watanabe said teasing and Abe rolled his eyes at him, but walked over to their beds instead of arguing with him again.

“Did you already have dinner? I guess you will start work from tomorrow, right? It’s already late and the construction side just closed for today.”

“We still have some provisions,” Taiga said and reached out for his bag pulling out a few really dry looking bread slices and even though Taiga tried to look at the boys like it would be an awesome dinner, he couldn’t hide that he couldn’t see the same food over and over again anymore.

“No, that doesn’t look like a meal you should have before working tomorrow,” Abe said with a lopsided smile, turning towards Watanabe with a knowing look.

“So that means we are going out for dinner it seems,” Watanabe said with a smile, but Taiga turned to Ueda instead.

“We would love to, trust me, but at the moment we really can’t afford it. Maybe after a few days of work,” Ueda replied, but the boys didn’t seem willing to let them off like this.

“Then we treat you,” Watanabe offered right away, but Ueda shook his head.

“That is really kind of you, but it’s really okay.”

“Don’t deny his offer or his kindness will turn into pure annoyance in no time,” Abe replied and Watanabe made a few steps towards Taiga and Ueda still wearing a smile, ignoring his friend’s teasing.

“So?” was all he asked waiting for them to change their minds and Taiga looked at Ueda kind of unsure, because of course he would love to go, but what if they couldn’t pay them back later. He didn’t want to get into trouble again and Ueda seemed to understand his worries, but also his reasons why he wanted to go.

Ueda let out a sigh before he faced Watanabe again. “I hope you know a really cheap place,” he said on which Taiga cracked a way too happy smile.

“Oh don’t worry, I know the perfect place and yes it is cheap,” Watanabe replied with a triumphing smile before Abe waved at them as he stepped next to the door ready to leave. “Then let’s go. I am starving!”

***

Ueda pulled Taiga to the side right before the man who got a punch in the face a second before stumbled backwards and fell to the ground where Taiga had just been standing.

“If I see your face around here again, I’ll make sure that you pay with a body part next time you are not able to pay your bill!” The barkeeper in his forties shouted at the customer who got up and ran outside right away.

“Now I know at least why this place is cheap,” Ueda said kind of worried as he looked around the bar. There were just about a dozen tables and except for two couples the rest of the customers were men, drunken and loud.

“Don’t worry, the barkeeper is really protective of his small business as you just saw. So he will throw everyone out who starts a fight,” Abe explained.

“And I doubt that someone would try to start a fight with you anyways, you look really strong,” Watanabe added scanning Ueda’s arms as the latter took his jacket off the moment they went over to a free table.

“Trust me you really don’t want to start a fight with him,” Taiga confirmed his suspicion with a kind of proud smile towards Ueda who smacked his head right away.

Abe shouted over to the barkeeper to make them the usual, but then he turned towards Taiga with a questioning look.

“What?”

“Can I order beer for all of us or do we need a juice for you?”

“One juice,” Ueda answered before Taiga could do so and the boy pinched him right away on the upper arm, making him flinch.

“For real now?” Taiga asked kind of hurt. “You never really complained when we drank in Tokyo, you know!”

“But we have work tomorrow!”

“Oh and you can deal with the alcohol so much better than I can or what?”

“Who said that I was drinking?”

“You said one juice, not two. Don’t try to play dumb!”

Ueda rolled his eyes on which Taiga tried to pinch him again, but this time he was faster and grabbed his wrist and they started struggling. On Watanabe’s laughter though they stopped and looked at the other two boys which looked really amused at their fight.

“You are getting along quite well,” Watanabe said with a smile on which Taiga raised an eyebrow.

“Really? Which part right now made you come to this conclusion?” Taiga asked confused.

“Just a feeling.”

“He is really good at guessing stuff like this,” Abe added before he turned towards the barkeeper once more to order juice for all of them for now, to prevent another fight.

“And he is right, isn’t he?” Ueda said, making Taiga turn to him, but his teasing smile resulted in Taiga hitting him on the shoulder and stretching out his tongue at him before he dropped with his back against the backrest of the chair, playing angry.

“Definitely getting along really well,” Watanabe said laughing as he handed them their drinks.

“Not always though,” Taiga replied more teasing than serious as he brought his drink up to his lips. Ueda just laughed on that before he drank as well.

“But that is typical for siblings, right?”

On Watanabe’s words Taiga spit out his drink, luckily missing Abe who sat next to him and jumped up squealing on his reaction. Ueda chocked as well and coughed a few times before he looked at him kind of perplexed.

“What was that?” Abe asked kind of amused, but Taiga stayed silent and looked at Ueda instead.

“Ehm, we are no siblings,” Ueda answered instead, trying to get back to his poker face, but it was obviously hard.

“So much to your knowledge of people,” Abe teased Watanabe who rolled his eyes at him.

“I was just guessing, okay! From their age gap they couldn’t be father and son, but they also don’t behave like normal friends, so I guessed they might be siblings. Sorry I didn’t want to insult you,” Watanabe apologized right away.

“Insult us? Trust me, thinking that we are siblings is the nicest thing someone said to us in months,” Taiga responded on which Ueda’s face fell again.

“I have the feeling that you don’t want to talk about it. Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry, as Taiga said it’s not a bad thing to assume,” Ueda replied with a brief smile. “And you might want to get yourself dry again?” He added pointing at Taiga’s pants which he had stained with his juice.

“Is there a bathroom?” Taiga asked as he already got up and Abe pointed towards a corridor in the back of the room.

“Second door on the right.”

“Thank you. I’ll be back in a second.”

Ueda looked after Taiga as he walked through the room, trying to avoid the tables with the loudest and most drunken people on his way to the back of the room.

“You really care for him, don’t you?” Watanabe asked and Ueda smiled before taking another sip of his glass.

“Is it that obvious?”

“It’s nothing bad.”

“I know, but enough about us for now. How about you two? Where are you heading?”

Abe and Watanabe exchanged a brief look and it didn’t take a genius to see that they tried to keep the topic away from themselves.

“Hey, if you don’t want to speak about it, I won’t ask again, don’t worry,” Ueda added understanding. He had met so many different people already and he knew that a lot of them have difficult pasts and even more difficult paths in front of them.

Watanabe’s mood had dropped extremely from one moment to the other as if he had tried to keep up his cheerful attitude until now to not get on anyone’s nerves and when Abe realized how Ueda raised an eyebrow at him, he kicked him under the table so that Watanabe looked up at him scolding.

“What was that for?”

“Stop acting so grumpy, it was your idea to go out for dinner!”

“Oh so now I have to act like everything is fine, even when-”

“Shota!” Abe scolded his friend before he could continue and then he gave Ueda an apologizing look, but the latter wasn’t offended.

“As I said don’t worry. I am the last one who will force you to speak about things you want to keep to yourself,” Ueda said again and Abe nodded thankfully before burning Watanabe with another look. Watanabe sighed and took his drink turning away from him.

“Hey, pretty boy, why don’t you sit with us for a while? I can get you a drink instead if your friends won’t allow you to drink.”

All three of them turned towards the table at the end of the room where Taiga had just stepped back inside, but was stopped by one of the man at the nearest table. The three men were in their mid-twenties and still too sober to excuse their behavior on the alcohol.

“Thanks for your offer, but I think I will deny,” Taiga replied with a brief smile and tried to pass by the man, but he grabbed him by the elbow before he could do so.

Abe was on his feet right away and Watanabe looked from Taiga to Ueda with a worried look, but then his eyes remained on Ueda with a confused expression. The older one leaned back on his chair with a relaxed expression. Even as the other two at the table got up as well as they realized that Abe wanted to interfere he stayed completely relaxed.

“Ehm, are you not gonna help him?” Watanabe asked kind of impatient, ready to jump up as well.

“Oh I will help him, if he needs help.”

“But he will definitely-”

Before Abe could even walk over to them to help, they heard how the man who had held onto Taiga cursed and as they looked back at Taiga, the boy had already twisted the man’s wrist in a really painful looking way and pushed him towards one of his friends.

“Sorry, but I really don’t like it when you touch me without asking for permission,” Taiga said with a weird smile as if he enjoyed provoking them. Watanabe would even go as far as saying that Taiga had somehow been waiting for such an opportunity.

“You little brat!” One of the other two shouted and launched himself at him, but Taiga ducked away under his attack and kicked him in the back, so that he crashed into the next table which was luckily empty or he would have gotten himself more opponents right away.

The remaining two attacked him together, but Taiga grabbed the first one on the sleeve as his punch went right passed his face and used him to be able to jump up and kick the other one into the stomach. Then he swirled around and hit the first one with his elbow to the neck, so that he dropped unconsciously to the ground.

With an outraged scream the one he had sent flying first jumped forward and clasped Taiga’s waist, pushing him to the ground. While Taiga was busy with avoiding to get hit by his punches, the other one got back on his feet and went over to the table to get one of the bottles.

“Oh that’s not good!” Watanabe let out worried and shot up, but he didn’t have to interfere. The moment the man broke the bottle on the table to attack Taiga with it, the boy finally succeeded in getting his other opponent off him and kick him hard enough to be sure that he wouldn’t get up again soon. Unfortunately Taiga had been a little bit too slow and even though he could dodge the attack somehow the bottle opened a cut on his cheek. While his attacker seemed more than satisfied with the result, Taiga didn’t even flinch. Instead his look darkened and as the man attacked again he swirled around him, using his typical fighting style to confuse his opponent and vanish out of his sight. Before the other one could catch up with his movements Taiga had jumped on one of the chairs behind him to jump higher and kick the other one with a round kick against the side of the neck. He crushed into the wall unconsciously and Taiga landed on his feet without problems, looking annoyed to his pants before he moved over the fabric with his hands.

“And here I extra went to get the stains out of it and you guys ruined it again,” Taiga scolded them as he realized that his clothes had gone pretty dirty through the fight. With a flick of his tongue he turned around and kept walking back to their table. The bar had fallen completely silent and no one even dared to look at Taiga or the others as he finally sat down on the table again. Luckily the barkeeper seemed more pleased than angry about what had happened, so they wouldn’t get scolded.

Abe and Watanabe were still standing, blinking at Taiga in pure confusion as Taiga joined them again.

“You might want to sit again? Or you don’t want to wait for our food?” Ueda asked completely random and Abe needed a moment to catch up to what he had said. He pulled on Watanabe’s sleeve so that he would sit down as well, but they still just kept staring.

Taiga took his drink, but winced as he put it down again and brought his hand to his cheek.

“Wait,” Ueda said and went over to the bar asking the barkeeper for a clean towel, which he handed to Taiga. “Don’t get the wound infected! IS your wound on the arm okay?”

“Thanks. Yes no worries, all good,” Taiga replied as he put the towel carefully over his cheek before he let out a kind of satisfied sounding sigh.

“You really needed that, didn’t you?” Ueda asked with a teasing smile.

“Oh come on, you would have loved to interfere. I would have left one to you if you wanted!”

“So nice of you, but I will wait for a more worthy opponent.”

“I guess then you will be out of shape when you finally find someone,” Taiga replied teasing, but when he turned to look at Watanabe and Abe, his look changed. “Everything alright?”

Watanabe cleared his throat as he realized that he was still starring at Taiga. “Yeah, sure. We were just…”

“Surprised, really surprised. You are awesome!” Abe completed his sentence finally forming a smile again. And while Taiga and Abe were now totally into a discussion about how awesome Taiga defeated all three of them, Ueda realized that Watanabe had drifted off into some deep thoughts as it seemed. After the astonishment about Taiga’s fighting, his look had changed into something else, but Ueda wasn’t sure what it was. But as their food was finally in front of them minutes later, all complicated topics were unimportant for the rest of the night, after all each meal was like a three star menu for them at the moment. They could worry about everything else later.


	2. Chapter 2

The next days passed without any kind of bad happenings or other interferences. And as promised Taiga and Ueda went out with the two boys for dinner again to repay them for their first invitation.

“I am so freaking tired, it’s not even funny anymore,” Abe let out while stretching his arms out. They were on their way back from the bar and the week had been really tough for all of them.

“I told you to rest more when you are tired,” Watanabe scolded him, but Abe just kept walking and Ueda could see that Watanabe was extremely protective of his friend. But when they reached their dorms he just sighed as if he tried hard to not pick an unnecessary fight.

“I will head to the toilet, so just go back already,” Taiga excused himself in front of the others and the boys waved him good night before heading towards their room.

“Are you coming?” Watanabe asked as he realized that Ueda hadn’t followed them, but was looking after Taiga instead. “We can wait for him if you want?”

As Abe pinched him on the arm the next moment Watanabe flinched turning towards him with an angry glare.

“What was that for?”

“Nothing in particular. We are leaving first, see you tomorrow at work! Don’t stay up for too long. It will be a tough day!”

Before Watanabe could start any kind of discussion, Abe dragged him down the corridor. Ueda had to smile after them as at least Abe was really good in reading the atmosphere.

Not surprised at all about finding an empty toilet, Ueda moved towards the stairs which lead to the building’s rooftop. Even as he found Taiga sitting on the edge of it he wasn’t worried at all. This habit had started a few weeks ago and he had finally gotten used to it. The first time Taiga vanished like this and he found him on the rooftop he had to watch out not to hit him, because he had scared him to death. But his intentions were different from before. They had had a long talk about it and Ueda could understand that Taiga needed those silent moments from time to time.

He stepped out the door and closed it as silent as possible, leaning against the nearest wall while watching Taiga who was looking up at the night sky. They had a full moon and there was not a single cloud, making the night clear and bright.

“You can come over if you want,” Taiga said calmly and Ueda chuckled before he moved over to the boy.

“So I wasn’t silent enough again,” he replied before sitting down next to Taiga who leant his head against his shoulder right away. “I didn’t want to disturb you. I can leave again if you want to be alone.”

“No, don’t worry. To be honest I am not even sure why I felt like hiding again.”

“You are not hiding. You need some time for yourself that is totally understandable.”

“And still here you are.”

“I told you I can leave again.”

“Don’t! That was a joke!” Taiga said in a hurry as Ueda made a move to shift away from him. He grabbed the older one’s hand to entwine their fingers and stared at their hands for a moment while stroking with his free hand over Ueda’s arm, following the veins which were showing clearly under his skin.

“Are there too many people? If hanging out with Watanabe and Abe is getting too much-”

“No, not at all,” Taiga interrupted him. “Really that is not the problem at all! I am actually quite happy we met them. Finally I have some people my age around again with which I can have carefree conversations, it feels...just like with Kentaro and the others…” Taiga’s voice trailed off somewhere in the middle and he let out a quiet sigh on which Ueda moved his free hand up to his hair, stroking over it carefully.

“So that’s the problem. You miss them, don’t you?”

“A lot to be honest,” Taiga admitted. “It’s unfair, isn’t it? I finally get the chance to travel with you and here I am sulking about being away from my friends.”

As Ueda stayed silent Taiga moved his head to look up at him, but Ueda just stared into the night sky with a smile, drawing small circles with his fingers in Taiga’s hair.

“Shouldn’t this be the part where you scold me and tell me that I should be happy to be with you, instead of thinking of them?” On that Ueda chuckled and turned towards the boy to drop a kiss on his head.

“Let’s say I would be a liar if I said I wouldn’t miss them too.”

“The people in common or your chance to shout at them the whole day and scold them for being lazy with their training?” Taiga asked with a smirk on which Ueda freed his other hand, just to mess up Taiga’s hair with both his hands.

“You little brat. We can have some private lessons if you miss my classes so much.”

Taiga let out a mix of small screams and chuckles and before he could even react Ueda had moved his hands from his hair to his cheeks and gave him a small peck on the forehead. Still smiling Taiga looked up at the older one who caressed his cheeks with his thumbs and before he could lean down to him, the younger one put his hands around Ueda’s neck to pull him down for a real kiss.  

***

“Ryohei stop running so fast, we are not getting chased,” Watanabe scolded his friend as they walked along a small street next to a river which guided them towards the next city. They had remained about one more week at the workplace, but then Watanabe and Abe got ready to leave. Abe asked them if they wanted to tag along and Taiga didn’t want to refuse, because having some company while they were traveling was a nice change after all. Ueda didn’t object either, even though he had realized how Watanabe didn’t seem as happy about his friend’s offer. For the whole week he had already tried to convince him to leave earlier, but because they also had to get some money together first, Abe had succeeded in keeping him there for at least one more week.

“But it’s freaking cold, so if I walk in your snail pace I am going to freeze to death before we even reach the next town,” Abe replied while moving impatiently from one leg to the other while waiting for the others to catch up.

“By the way, shouldn’t we reach the next town soon? The man told us that if we follow the river we would reach it before sunset, right?” Taiga asked as he realized that the sun was already about to set and on the way they were walking there were no lights, no cars, it was seriously in the middle of nowhere, so if possible he didn’t want to keep walking here at night without any light.

“Told you, that you are too slow,” Abe said teasingly before he turned around and kept walking or more like half jumping, trying to somehow warm his body up.

“Tatsuya, all good?” Taiga asked as he realized that Ueda was staring towards the woods which were on their other side, but it was already getting too dark and the trees were standing too narrow to see anything. Without a warning Taiga made a step to the side and pushed Ueda with his hips on which the latter almost lost balance and stumbled. The death glare which Taiga received in respond made his lips curl up into a teasing smile. “Your own fault if you space out.”

“You little brat,” Ueda said and tried to get a hold of him, but Taiga jumped to the side, sticking out his tongue at the older one. They started chasing each other, but then there was a movement in front of them next to the trees. They both saw the person, but Abe who was obviously his goal didn’t see him and Watanabe was also too far away to interfere right away.

“RYOHEI, WATCH OUT!”

Abe swirled around, but his attacker reached out for his clothes and with a swift movement he pulled out his purse and pushed Abe with so much force that the latter ended up falling into the river.

“Fuck,” Watanabe let out outraged and jumped into the river instead of chasing after the attacker and before Ueda could even decide what to do Taiga had dashed forward, chasing after the thief which tried to vanish between the trees again.

“Taiga, wait!” Ueda yelled after him, but the next moment he had already disappeared between the trees. Ueda looked over to the other two again and even though Watanabe had gotten a grip on Abe, the stream was so strong that it was hard for them to reach the riverside. Cursing, Ueda jumped down to them, helping them back up before he dashed towards the direction Taiga had vanished to, shouting at the boys to wait there for them.

Luckily Ueda found them faster than he had expected, because Taiga had managed to stop the thief, but they were both on the ground, trying to get the upper hand. The stranger almost succeeded in hitting a punch on Taiga as he sat on top of him, but Ueda was faster and pulled him back on his jacket with so much force that he crushed on his back with a pained yelp. The purse fell on the ground next to Ueda and he picked it up before he helped Taiga back on his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“All good, don’t worry.”

Taiga let out a whine as Ueda suddenly hit him on the back of the head and looked at him scolding. “Don’t tell me not to worry, if you just run off like this.”

“Everything is fine as you can see! I can handle things on my own as well,” Taiga shot back at him and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Oh I could see that perfectly. Shall I just watch and see who wins next time?”

Taiga rolled his eyes, but then his look fell on the thief again, who was back in a sitting position and rubbed the back of his head.

Taiga hit Ueda against the arm so that he followed his look, resting his eyes on the stranger seconds later as well. It had gotten dark by now, especially in the woods and it was hard to see clearly, but Ueda could see that the person in front of them seemed kind of strong judging to his body’s appearance, but what didn’t match this first impression was his face.

“How old are you, boy?” Ueda asked and the stranger looked up at him with a careful look, obviously calculating his chances of an escape.

“Not much younger than him, I guess,” the boy let out and pointed at Taiga. “Does it even matter to you?”

“Honestly, no. But we have to decide what to do with you now.”

On Ueda’s dangerous tone the boy shifted backwards, but still didn’t try to get up.

Taiga moved closer to Ueda and spoke in a lower voice, even though it didn’t even matter if he heard him or not. “Shouldn't we just let him go? We don't really earn anything from it if we lose time here with him. We got the purse back, so isn't it okay?”

Ueda tilted his head and the boy’s look turned more restless with each passing second.

“We will let him go” Ueda announced and the boy escaped a relieved sigh, but the Ueda stepped over him and lifted him up on the collar. “After you apologized to Abe, because of you he almost drowned.”

The boy didn't even try to struggle as Ueda pushed him back to the direction they came from and it somehow confused Taiga. The moment he had caught up to him earlier he wasn't easy to stop and he fought back seriously. He didn't seem like the type to get easily scared, so what was holding him back? Was it just because Ueda had promised to let him go afterwards? Or was he able to calculate his chances already, so that he didn't try to rebel against Ueda, because he would lose anyways?

They reached the others a few minutes later and Watanabe had already replaced Abe’ wet shirt and jack with his ow jacket, even though he was also wet up to the waist. Ueda had managed to keep himself dry at least from his knees upwards.

“Everything alright? We got your purse back,” Taiga said as he walked up to them and Abe took it with shaking hands.

“Thank you,” he replied with a faint smile while Watanabe rubbed his back to keep him as warm as possible.

“And we brought someone who wants to apologize,” Ueda added and pushed the boy to the front. He turned towards Ueda once more, but the latter just had to raise an eyebrow so that the boy turned around and bowed to them.

“I'm sorry,” he let out in a neutral voice. Of course they couldn't really expect a heartbreaking apology from him, but it was all Ueda wanted.

“Okay, fine. You can-”

“Shota?”

Ueda was interrupted by Abe who tried to get a hold on Watanabe’s sleeve as the latter approached the stranger with fast steps. Watanabe grabbed the boy by the chin to make him look up and again Taiga could see how the boy's look changed slightly. He didn't seem as taken aback as with Ueda, but he still seemed to be careful about his chances.

“You were with them!” Watanabe said suddenly, making Ueda and Taiga exchange a confused look while Abe let out a gasp as he seemed to recognize him as well.

Without another warning Watanabe grabbed him by the collar and shook him violently, resulting with the boy finally struggling as well.

“Where did they go?” He yelled at him, but the boy didn’t reply and tried to free himself instead, but before he could do anything else Watanabe punched him, so accurate and fast that not just Taiga, but also Ueda looked at him confused. The boy landed on the ground with Watanabe sitting on his stomach and taking him by the collar again.

“WHERE IS SAKU?” He screamed at him outraged and lunged out for another punch, but it was stopped by Ueda before he could land another hit. Abe tried to move towards them, but Taiga held him back, shaking his head.

“Okay, enough with this kindergarten, both of you!” Ueda pushed Watanabe away and took a tight grip on the boy’s wrist as he pulled him up. When Watanabe was about to jump at him again Ueda shot him a warning glare. “Trust me, even though I have no clue what is going on, I am sure that you have all the right of the world to be angry at him, but you won’t reach anything if you rip him apart like this.”

Watanabe cursed and turned away from them and Abe walked up to him with a worried look, but he didn’t try to calm his friend down. “So what do we do now?” Abe asked after a moment of silence and Taiga shrugged his shoulders, while Watanabe didn’t even spent them any attention for now.

“It got way colder now that it got dark and you will die out here if you don’t get to change your clothes fast, so we keep moving until we reach the next village. And no worries, I will make sure that he is not going anywhere,” Ueda added as Watanabe was ready to complain. “Move boys, come on!”

Watanabe growled dangerously, but Abe shoved him to the front and they kept walking while Ueda used his belt to tie the boy’s hands on his back. Taiga eyed him carefully and he could see that his expression had softened, but not in a good way. He knew that kind of look and it gave him shivers. It felt like the boy had fallen in a deep black hole with no way out. Like something that he had lived through before and never wanted to experience again. As the boy felt Taiga’s eyes on him he looked up at him with a weird expression, almost as if he wanted to ask him for help. But the next moment Ueda pushed him forward and told Taiga to follow them.

***

“We are really sorry for lying to you”, Abe apologized and bowed deeply to Ueda and Taiga.

They had made it to the next town about half an hour later and had found a cheap tavern where they were allowed to stay over the night. After Watanabe had asked for some clothes to change and they all gathered in one of the guest rooms, Ueda had made sure that the boy would sit as far as possible away from Watanabe. And luckily he didn’t try to provoke the other one and did as he was told, sitting on the corner of the bed, right behind Ueda. Taiga was sitting at the other end of the bed, eyeing him from time to time, while Watanabe sat on the bed on the other side of the room from which Abe had just gotten up to apologize and he already looked quite exhausted by today's happening, so they all wanted to clear things out fast.

“I told you already that I won’t judge you for keeping any secrets from us. We are still strangers to you. The main question is if you want to talk about it now?”

On that question Abe turned towards Watanabe who let out a sigh, but waved his hand, giving Abe permission to continue.

“To say it as simple as possible, we are from a fight club in Sendai.”

“To be honest, I am not really surprised,” Ueda said on which Abe looked at him in confusion. “I mean you really held back perfectly in the bar when we first met, but today, the punch Watanabe gave the boy. That wasn’t from an amateur.”

“So you are aware of the Fight Clubs, I guess?”

Taiga escaped a small chuckle on that even though he had tried to hold back and when all eyes rested on him he bit his lip before he nodded towards Ueda apologizing.

“We are actually from a fight club ourselves. Taiga is in the 2nd fighting class and I am the trainer of the North Tokyo Fight Club.”

While Abe just stared at him in shock, Watanabe didn’t look that surprised and that made Ueda realize something else. “You are no fighter, are you?”

Abe shook his head slowly as he realized that he had addressed him, by now the boy didn’t even seem to be able to concentrate properly, but he still refused to sit down again. “No I am actually our doctor’s assistant.”

“And what about him?” Taiga asked, moving his head towards the boy’s direction.

“He and his troop marched into our territory and literally burned down our club, killing two of our fighters and took two with them,” Watanabe explained while his eyes were fixed on the boy, who seemed to get smaller with every word.

“So Saku is one of them, right?” Taiga asked.

“Yes, he is one of our friends and since they took him away we tried to track them down, but we were always one step too late to catch up to them and we actually lost track of them two days, before we met you,” Abe explained in a calm voice, even though he shifted impatiently.

“So now that you have accidently stumbled over him you think they have to be close by?” Ueda asked now also turning around to the boy who seemed more than uncomfortable with all the eyes on him. “So are they?”

“What?” The boy asked confused.

“Are they around?” Ueda asked again, but the boy shook his head, looking to the ground.

“Don’t lie! They have to be close when you are around!” Watanabe yelled at him and rose to his feet, but Abe stopped him before he could freak even more.

“Then how come you are without them?” Taiga asked as calm as possible, because he was sure that if Watanabe would keep freaking out at him that he wouldn’t tell them anything.

The boy looked up at Taiga with a troubled expression which still startled him, because even though he was younger he seemed way tougher than him and seeing him so troubled made him feel more than bad.

“I ran,” he finally let out in a low voice.

“You ran?” Taiga repeated and the boy nodded.

“Oh so all of a sudden you realized that what you are doing is bad? And I am sure that we weren’t your only targets until now!”

“I didn’t kill any of your people, I never killed anyone…,” the boy let out in an even lower voice and Taiga could feel how he was about to crumble under the pressure of Watanabe’s accusations.

“Okay, calm down,” Taiga said as he shifted closer to the boy kind of protectively while still eyeing Watanabe. “If he is lying then his people should be out searching for him, right? They wouldn’t leave him behind. So why don’t we take a rest and search for them afterwards?”

“I don’t need to rest, I can search for them right away,” Watanabe snapped again, but Abe tried to stop him from leaving the room.

“Please Shota, let’s not rush this, okay? It is dangerous if you just run off and search for them without a plan.”

“Abe is right. You should really calm down for now, so that we can come up with a plan as soon as we have all rested for a while,” Ueda said as he got up from the bed.

“I can’t rest while Saku is still in danger. We rested long enough when we lost track of them!”

Watanabe tried to shake Abe off, but the later almost clawed his fingers into his arm, but this time he didn’t protest, he actually didn’t move at all and stared to the ground.

“Hey, you’re okay?” Ueda asked as he approached the boy, but before he could even reach him Abe sank to the ground without a warning. Luckily Watanabe was fast enough to grab him by the shoulders and stop his fall.

“Is he okay?” Taiga asked worried as he was about to stand up as well, but Ueda signaled him to stay where he was, while he crouched down next to Abe and took a closer look at him. He was still conscious, but his breaths have turned heavy and painful. When Ueda moved his hand to his forehead he let out a sigh.

“He is burning up, we should ask the owner if he has some medicine,” Ueda explained before he made Watanabe back off and lifted Abe up in his arms. The boy had his eyes closed and didn’t protest when Ueda moved towards the door with him.

“I will bring him to his room so he can rest.”

“I will try and get some medicine,” Watanabe said before he rushed out the door. It surprised Taiga that he didn’t yell at the boy again that this was his fault. He seemed to have forgotten about his rage in an instant, now just focusing on his friend and it made Taiga smile in relief. They weren’t bad guys, they were just lost at the moment and who wouldn’t be if a good friend got taken away from them?

“Taiga, can you handle him alone?” Ueda asked worried, but Taiga nodded without any hesitation.

“Take your time, it’s not like he could do much damage,” Taiga replied and looked at the boy again who had almost completely curled up in the corner. Maybe he had been afraid as well that Watanabe would skin him alive now that his friend had gotten a fever because of him.

“I’ll be right back,” Ueda said before he stepped out of the room. Taiga stood up and closed the door before he sat down in front of the boy again, scanning him from head to toe.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to understand you.”

“Why?”

“Because I believe you,” Taiga said with a calm smile and the boy sat up a little bit, but remained on distance.

“How come? I don’t think I gave you any good reason to make you believe me.”

“It’s your look,” Taiga explained and the boy gulped nervously, obviously knowing which look he meant. “I don’t know what happened, but I know that broken look. When I chased you, you didn’t wear it, because you were sure that you can beat me. And to be honest I am sure you would have won if Tatsuya hadn’t interfered. But you knew right away that Tatsuya was stronger than you and you surrendered, because that is what you are used to.”

His words seem to sink into the boy’s skin like daggers and whatever had happened in his troop before seemed to haunt him badly.

“Watanabe is also strong, maybe you are in the same fighting class and the fact that he knew about you made it hard for you to fight back. Fear is a really strong enemy.”

“What are you, a psychiatrist? Or a fortune teller?”

Taiga escaped a chuckle on that before he shook his head and smiled at the boy again. “No, just someone who knows how easy other people can drive you into a corner and how hard it is to free yourself if no one is there to guide you.”

Even though Taiga wasn’t really sure if he made much sense, the boy seemed to relax through his words and he finally dared to sit up straight, trying to find a good position with his hands still tied to his back.

“But they are not going to believe me,” he let out kind of defeated while looking over to the door.

“Give them some time, they have to calm down. Your troop seemed to have created more than just a light damage.”

“They will do even more if they really find them. Or if they find us first,” he added in a low voice.

“You are afraid that they will come for you, right?”

Of course he was afraid of that possibility, it was written all over his face, as well as serious exhaustion. “I guess the rest of the serious talk can wait until tomorrow.” Taiga shifted to the side of the bed and pulled on the covers and the boy moved as well so he could pull them up. “You seem exhausted. I can’t sleep before Tatsuya is back, but you should really rest for now.”

The boy didn’t even try to argue with him and he lay down without any hesitation. Taiga remained seated at the edge of the bed while the boy looked up to the ceiling for a moment. It was weird, but they both didn’t seem to feel awkward next to each other, even though their first meeting and the way things got messed up this easy should put a wall between them.

“Can I ask you one more question?” Taiga asked and the boy turned towards him.

“What is it?”

“Would you tell me your name? It feels weird talking to you without knowing your name.”

That managed to make the boy smile for the first time, even though it lasted just for a brief moment.

“Shintaro.”

“Then welcome to your new chaos troop, Shintaro,” Taiga replied with a brief smile as well. Shintaro turned away from him to finally rest and Taiga kept staring at him for another while. He had to find a way to make the others understand that Shintaro didn’t seem to be the bad guy in this story, even though they wouldn’t easily believe him. But this time he had found someone he wanted to protect and even though it seemed naive to himself as well, he just couldn’t believe that the boy had done any harm without someone forcing him to do so. But the same thought made him shiver, who exactly was their opponent? Who was strong and insane enough to attack fight clubs, take people with him by force and scaring his own people so much that they choose to flee even though it could cost their lives? He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.


	3. Chapter 3

“No one talks before I say so, is that clear?” Ueda said warningly as he sat down at one of the tables in front of the bar counter with Watanabe, Taiga and Shintaro the next morning. He had untied the boy, but had made clear that he wouldn’t come far if he tried to run. The fact that other people were around as well forced them to keep their voices down, but it was also forcing Watanabe to keep calm.

“So, I want you to explain to us what kind of troop it is you were with before, otherwise we don’t know who we are dealing with.”

Shintaro nodded and shot Taiga a hesitant look, but the latter formed a supportive smile and nodded. Ueda had found the boy sitting next to Shintaro when he had returned in the evening before. He hadn’t asked if they had talked about anything, because Taiga needed to rest as well. But observing the two now showed him that they had obviously talked about something related to Shintaro’s past. Taiga had told them his name in the morning and after several minutes of convincing Abe to stay in his room and rest for now they had finally decided to have a talk.

“We...they are called Mugen,” Shintaro started, feeling more than uncomfortable about recalling everything. He shot a nervous glance at the other people in the room, but no one spend them any attention. “I don’t know for how long the troop itself already existed, but for some time now they started recruiting more members or force people to join if they consider them good fighters.”

“Oh and you are such a good fighter, that they bothered with forcing you to join?”

Ueda shot Watanabe a warning glare and the latter rolled his eyes, but remained silent.

“If they consider fighters dangerous and hard to break they kill them, but if they see potential and the chance to break them, they will take them with them.”

“So I guess that is why they took Saku?” Ueda asked towards Watanabe and the latter nodded slowly.

“Even though I doubt that he will break that easily and that is actually what worries me.”

They didn’t have to ask for an explanation, because it was clear that if a person would refuse to join, their life was definitely in danger.

“Shintaro, where did you run from them?” Ueda asked.

“I ran before they moved on to Akita and I know that they are planning on returning to Tokyo.”

“Tokyo?” Taiga asked in confusion and Ueda also tensed on the mention of their city. “Are they actually from there?”

“That is what I heard. My fight club was in Chiba and they remained around the Tokyo area for some time, but kept a low profile. But then they started moving northwards, continuing with the fight clubs around Sendai.” Shintaro shot a nervous glance at Watanabe who kept silent, but burned him with a death glare. “From Sendai we moved northwards and some of the others said that because they were running out of time, they would just stop at a few locations between Akita and Tokyo, before returning to their base.”

“Returning for what?” Ueda asked, but the boy shook his head.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t really allowed to any of their meetings, just the leader’s most trusted men are allowed at the important meetings and except for them no one knows any details of their plan.”

Ueda leant back on his chair with a sigh. This had become way more complicated than he had thought. Rescuing one person was one thing, but standing up against a whole troop which had obviously some kind of weird plans related to Tokyo was making his head ache already.

“Then I guess as soon as Abe feels good enough to keep traveling we will head to Akita,” Ueda announced and Watanabe looked at him completely startled.

“You are joining us?”

“Yes, I thought that was clear already.”

“But, we lied to you. We brought a lot of trouble and this is going to be dangerous,” Watanabe explained and looked at Taiga next, but the younger one looked at him with the same calm expression as Ueda.

“Let’s say we are really stubborn when we decided to help someone, so don’t even try to reason with us,” Taiga let out in amusement, but Watanabe still couldn’t believe that they would actually help them. His anger had once more been beaten by another emotion. But this time it wasn’t worry, but gratefulness. He stood up and bowed towards them to their obvious surprise.

“I know we have no right at all to ask you to join our fight, but if you are willing to help, then we are accepting your kindness. Thank you so much!”

“Just make sure you stay calm and keep a cool head, okay? Storming to the front line without a plan won’t bring your friend back,” Ueda said while Watanabe sat down again and nodded slowly.

“The main question now is what you want to do?”

Shintaro needed a moment to realize that Ueda had addressed him and he looked at everyone in confusion and slight panic, but then Taiga put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

“If you want to leave, you are free to do so. I guess we can all tell that you are not the person we should blame for what Mugen did until now,” Taiga said encouraging and Shintaro bit his lip in slight worry. It was surprising Ueda that the boy was hesitating about his decision, because he had run to get away as far as possible, right? So there was just one way he could choose, wasn’t there?

“I am coming with you.”

“Pardon?” Watanabe let out in complete shock and even Ueda lifted an eyebrow at him in disbelieve, but Shintaro looked at Taiga instead and the younger one gave him another smile.

“Then you are more than welcome to travel with us,” Taiga let out and Shintaro cracked a sheepish smile. The headache was getting bigger, Ueda couldn’t deny that, but with the boy joining them, they had at least a better chance of identifying the members of Mugen.

***

“Wait you actually left him with Abe and Watanabe?” Taiga asked perplex as Ueda returned to their room alone.

“They won’t kill him so relax, at least not as long as Abe is with them.”

They were still about a day trip away from Akita, but with Abe feeling better again they had kept traveling two days in a row, with just short breaks to make sure that Abe wouldn’t overdo it. To keep a low profile they had decided to walk the way, because they had been close anyways and they had either enough money to pay for any busses which were rare around this area anyways nor could they hitchhike with so many people easily.

It was the last bigger town before reaching Akita and they had luckily found a small ryokan with two free rooms.

“You should rest and not worry so much,” Ueda said before he sat down on Taiga’s bed, ignoring that there was a second bed on the other side of the room.

“Sure with us hunting down another crazy troop there is nothing to worry about,” Taiga let out sarcastic.

Ueda shifted back so that his back rested on the wall and Taiga shifted over to him and sat down between his legs with his back resting against the latter’s chest. The boy searched for one of his hands and pulled it to the front, playing with his fingers absentminded.

“I actually meant you don’t have to worry about Shintaro that much, but you have all the right to worry about Mugen.”

“He might not be that much younger than me, but I still feel the urge to protect him.”

“Then I guess you finally understand how I felt all those years,” Ueda said before he kissed Taiga on the top of his head.

“As long as I don’t fall in love with him over the time everything is okay. I doubt you would like that.”

Instead of answering, Ueda moved his other arm to the front as well and squeezed Taiga with a little bit too much force so that it wasn’t clear if the sound Taiga let out was a chuckle or a whine.

“That was a joke,” he let out weakly, but still with a smile and Ueda rested back against the wall again.

“I know,” the latter soothed him and squeezed him again, but this time gentler.

“Why do we always end up in some kind of mess?”

“Mhh, bad luck?”

“I thought our bad luck charm was Kentaro.”

“Who knows in what kind of trouble he brought the club by now? We might have gotten the lesser evil.”

“Don’t say that,” Taiga complained and hit Ueda with his elbow lightly into the ribs on which the older one let out a chuckle. But truth was they were actually worried that this wasn’t just one of their jokes. Shintaro had told them that Mugen was connected to Tokyo and that they had started moving a long time ago already. Just because they hadn’t heard of them didn’t mean that the situation couldn’t have changed by now. But for now they had to take care of their own problems, hoping that just this one time everything would go without any kind of huge disaster.

***

“The bets are incredible today, we should definitely check it out.”

“Then let’s go, not that we miss the fun.” Two young men yelled as they passed by Ueda and the others and all five exchanged a brief look.

“Seriously now? And here I thought it would be complicated to find a place to get information from,” Watanabe said with a raised eyebrow still looking after the two. Before they could disappear out of their view Ueda signaled them to follow them as inconspicuous as possible. It hadn’t been even one hour since they had reached Akita, but the city was big and none of them knew where to start looking, but that problem had luckily just resolved on its own.

“I guess it is just natural that a big city like this has streets fights,” Taiga let out as he followed the older three which sped up to not lose sight of the two men. But soon Taiga realized that Shintaro fell back and he slowed down to walk next to him.

“All good?”

Shintaro needed a moment to react and he tried to smile at Taiga, but it didn’t even convince himself.

“Let me guess, you are afraid of running directly into them, right?”

“Stupid, isn’t it? I decided to join you, so I should be prepared of facing them again, but I don’t know…” Shintaro bit his lip and the way he held one of his hands in a tight grip of his other one made clear how afraid he was.

“We are not going to leave you behind, don’t worry, okay?” Taiga’s words seemed to have done the trick and at least a little bit of confidence returned to Shintaro’s face as he nodded and Taiga clapped him on the shoulder  before they hurried to catch up to the others.

“Wait, Watanabe stop!” Ueda warned him before he could rush through the door the other two had just vanished through.

They had led them to a huge warehouse like building. The windows were broken here and there and the huge metal door was half broken. Luckily no one seemed to guard the place, so they would at least be able to enter without a problem.

“Okay so if any members of Mugen are here at the moment you three can identify them. Maybe Shintaro knows more than you two do, but I guess we have the best chances if you two go together and Taiga and I search together with Shintaro,” Ueda explained and no one objected. “If something goes wrong you run, is that clear!”

They all nodded and Watanabe and Abe entered first, with the other three waiting a few minutes before following. Shintaro was already clinging on Taiga before they had even entered, but the boy didn’t mind. Ueda walked protectively in front of them, also to make sure that Shintaro wasn’t seen by too many people. The boy had pulled the hood of his jacket deep into his face to remain as invisible to everyone as possible.

After first entering a smaller room there was a staircase to some kind of basement and they could hear yelling from downstairs already. Moving down the stairs carefully, they reached a room with a lot of pipes running on its side and on the high ceiling. The ring was placed in the middle and was nothing more than a square, dividing the fighters and the audience with a few ropes which were placed on four huge stone pillars.

To their luck there seemed to be a quite interesting fight going on so they were able to sneak around without attracting too much attention. They couldn’t spot Watanabe and Abe, but with all the people around that didn’t surprise them.

Ueda led them towards the back of the room where they found a place next to the wall without a lot of people.

“Anyone you recognize?” Ueda asked in a low voice, but Shintaro shook his head. At least among the spectators there seemed no member of Mugen, but the fighters were standing closer to the ring, so if they wanted to spot someone they had to get closer.

“Okay, so as we said, as soon as we find any member we are out of here! We will meet up with the other two outside again and wait until they leave to follow them, nothing more and nothing less. The rest of the plan follows then.”

Both boys nodded and followed Ueda closely as he finally dared to move through the crowd, closer to the ring. The people’s yelling got louder and it was clear that the ongoing fight was about to end. As they reached one of the ropes Ueda stopped and Taiga looked at Shintaro questioning who looked around. There were no familiar faces on the left or the right and as he wanted to take a look to the opposite side of the ring, one of the fighters got kicked down right in front of them. Ueda stepped back a little bit and the boys moved with him.

“So no familiar faces?” Taiga asked as Ueda already got ready to push them back into the crowd.

“No, I couldn’t see-” He stopped. He stopped moving, he stopped breathing and he was sure that his heart stopped beating for a moment. Once more he had tried to spot someone and looked to the opposite side of the ring, but now that one fighter was down, the second one got into their sight.

Ueda stopped in time before he stumbled over him and Taiga followed his look, finding the fighter in the ring staring at Shintaro. It was another boy their age and he was tall and thin, indicating that he was maybe using a similar fighting style to Taiga’s. Their looks had just met for maybe a second before the boy in the ring looked at Taiga. His eyes remained on Taiga just a moment longer before he formed a lopsided smile. Before Taiga could interpret something out of it though Shintaro grabbed him and Ueda by the sleeves and pulled them violently back into the crowd.

“MOVE,” he yelled at them and luckily they didn’t try to stop him, but followed him as fast as possible.

“Shintaro, what is going on?”

“He is one of them and he is one of the worst!” Shintaro yelled at them, his breathing pace suddenly becoming irregular and Taiga had to grab his arm to prevent him from stumbling.

“Calm down, everything is fine.”

“No, Taiga nothing is fine! He saw me! We have to run, now!”

Luckily the other fighter had gotten up once more and the boy couldn’t just dash out the ring without causing a huge uproar, but they had to be fast nevertheless. Which wasn’t easy, because Shintaro was about to lose it and Taiga moved to cup his face. “Hey, look at me! Shintaro, we are with you! We are not letting them take you again, you understand?”

When he still didn’t react Taiga slapped him lightly against the cheek on which he finally looked up at him.

“Let’s go,” was all Taiga said as he was sure that Shintaro was able to move and Ueda pushed them towards the exit as calm as possible. Attention was the less they needed now, but then there was some outraged shouting heard on the other side of the room and for a moment Ueda feared that the fight had ended, but looking closer it were other fighters causing the uproar, but to his shock the ones they had been yelling at were Watanabe and Abe. One of them had taken a grip on Abe while Watanabe yelled back at them, ready to start a fight.

“Shit, bad timing,” Ueda cursed before turning towards Taiga and Shintaro. He was sure that those fighters weren’t from Mugen, but that didn’t make them less dangerous.

“Taiga, bring him outside and wait at the meeting place. I make sure that those two idiots will get out as well.”

“Are you sure it will be fine?” Taiga asked worried, but proceeded to push Shintaro towards the door as Ueda nodded at him and dashed over to the other side of the ring.

“Wait, what if there are more members? What if he saw Ueda earlier as well? It’s too dangerous,” Shintaro tried to protest, but Taiga pushed him up the stairs.

“Don’t worry, Tatsuya knows what he is doing. Trust him on that.”

Shintaro still didn’t seem convinced, but seeing that Taiga left him behind even though he seemed troubled about it as well, made him finally move.

They ran outside and hid behind an old storage where they had planned to meet up later.

The minutes past way too slow and Taiga got restless, but still didn’t make a move to enter again and then they finally came in sight. Watanabe and Abe ran out the building, dashing towards their direction. They had not even time to catch their breath before Taiga took Watanabe by the shoulders and shook him. “Where is Tatsuya?”

“Fighting,” Watanabe said between heavy breaths.

“What?” Taiga asked shocked, because he couldn’t believe that they had left Ueda down there to clean up their mess.

“He interfered and tried to calm them down by talking, but they wouldn’t listen and then Ueda offered one of them a fight to settle things,” Abe explained and Taiga went pale in an instant. Not sure if the Mugen member had just seen him and Shintaro or had recognized Ueda’s face as well, Taiga finally panicked and pushed Watanabe and Abe out of his way, but this time it was Shintaro who held him back.

“Wait, you can’t go in there again. He saw you, he knows your face!”

“Who? Did you find a Mugen member?” Abe asked perplex, but for now he wouldn’t get an answer. Shintaro could explain it later to them, but for now he wanted to make sure that Taiga wouldn’t make any stupid move.

“I am not going to sit here and wait,” Taiga yelled and tried to get out of Shintaro’s grip, but the boy was stronger than him.

“You told me that you trust him!” Shintaro shouted back at him, but something had changed in the boy’s behavior and Taiga finally stopped struggling, looking at Shintaro with an intense stare which made the boy take a step backwards.

“I trust him that is true. But if he fights he needs me!” Shintaro finally let go of him completely and the other two also didn’t try to stop him. “It might not be easy to understand this, but just standing next to the ring, watching his fight, showing him that I am next to him, always gives him the strength he needs to win his fights.”

It didn’t seem to sound as ridiculous to the others as it sounded to himself, because Abe cracked a smile and waved his hand at him.

“Then go, we don’t want him to lose after we are already at fault that he ended up in the fight in the first place.”

Taiga just nodded before he ran back to the warehouse. Ueda’s last official fight had been years ago, but Taiga still remembered those times. Taiga was always standing next to the ring, never taking his eyes off him and one night Ueda had told him that this was what gave him some kind of extra strength. That alone by the fact that he knew he was watching he was able to keep fighting, even if he was at his limits already.

He used his scarf to cover half his face as he entered the room downstairs again. The previous fight had already ended and luckily he couldn’t spot the boy from before. Without any hesitation he pushed through the crowd and as expected he found Ueda already in the ring when he reached the side of it. A weird kind of tension was lying in the air and Taiga took another look around before he dared to lower the scarf from his face. Ueda had tossed his jacket to the side and his opponent stepped in front of him as well. There were no rules, not even gloves, after all this was street fighting.

Taiga shifted impatiently from one leg to the other. Ueda had still not realized that he was there, but shouting out for him could end with getting unwanted attention, so for now he remained silent.

They started without any signal and circled around each other. Luckily Ueda’s opponent wasn’t that much taller than him and with Ueda being in the 5th fighting class Taiga was sure that his opponent couldn’t be that much stronger, but if he had more experience in street fighting than it was a huge disadvantage for Ueda.

His opponent opened the fight with a first attack. Accurate and strong punches, which were hard to dodge and even more difficult to block. At the last moment Ueda succeeded in avoiding an upper cut and tried to counter with a left hook, but his opponent blocked it and changed his fighting style without any kind of warning. He lowered his upper body and grabbed Ueda by the waist shoving him backwards into one of the stone pillars. The force with which he crushed against it made him feel dizzy for a moment, but he lifted his arms right away to hit the other one with his elbow into the neck and luckily his attack was strong enough to make him back off.

Knowing that Ueda was good in analyzing and switching his own fighting style depending on his opponent Taiga relaxed a little bit. But there was not much time for Ueda to do so, because his opponent attack him with a lot of spinning kick this time, trying to sweep away his feet and succeeding in bringing him out of balance in the end.

With his focus on his legs, Ueda failed in blocking the direct punch to his face and he was forced to take a few steps back to get the time to see clear again. Unfortunately his opponent had used his weak moment to throw him to the ground and Ueda let out a pained groan as his head hit against the stone floor.

Taiga gritted his teeth, but tried hard to remain silent while the crowd got louder and louder, cheering for both of them.

Ueda succeeded fast in trapping his opponent with his legs and turn them around. With a swift movement he trapped his arm between his legs and let himself drop back to the ground. The ominous sound that followed together with a scream from his opponent made the crowd cheer even louder.

With a relieved sigh Taiga took a step backwards, knowing that Ueda could win the fight without his help. After all he had been prepared to fight without him around in the first place. He would definitely scold him when he found out that he had come back down. The moment he wanted to turn around and vanish between the people again to wait for Ueda outside, one of the still cheering costumers bumped into him with such a force that Taiga lost balance and would have definitely landed flat on the ground if someone hadn’t stopped his fall in time. Arms had wrapped around his upper body, helping him back into a standing position and as soon as they had reached out for him, they were gone as well. Taiga turned around to find a man, maybe just a few years older than Ueda looking at him with a warm smile. He had light brown hair, which fell in long strands into his eyes. His clothes showed that he was definitely here to watch and not to fight. It wasn’t actually a suit he was wearing, but the white pants and the grey silk shirt which was half hidden under his long brown coat, made Taiga wonder why such a person came to a street fight event. He didn’t miss the intense stare with which the man scanned him from head to toe, his lips suddenly changing from a warm to a fascinated smile.

“Are you okay?” He asked in a caring voice and Taiga nodded before he found his voice again.

“Yes, thank you.”

With a light bow Taiga thanked him again and turned away, but somehow he had the feeling that he was still staring after him. Hearing the cheering behind him, he realized that the fight had ended and Ueda had indeed won, so he walked up the stairs in a rush, before he could run into any other weird people. Two encounters had already been two too much for his liking.


	4. Chapter 4

 

“Are you really okay?”

“Abe, if you ask one more time I am seriously going to hit you,” Ueda scolded the boy and he bit his lip, finally stopping his questioning.

As planned they had waited outside the building and the boy Shintaro had identified as one of the Mugen members left about an hour later, so they followed him as inconspicuous as possible. But Abe felt extremely sorry for making Ueda end up in a fight, because they hadn’t been careful enough. It had actually been Watanabe who had picked the fight with the other person after Abe had accidently bumped into him when they tried to leave out of the crowd and he got pushed and stumbled. It hadn’t been such a big deal, but the other one didn’t want to let him off that easily even though he had apologized right away. And of course Watanabe wasn’t the type to just solve something like this quietly, especially not when they would attack Abe.

“Concentrate or we will lose him,” Taiga warned them and they saw how the boy vanished around another corner and they sped up. They had reached one of the outer parts of the city and except for a lot of old buildings and warehouses there was nothing around. They hurried around two more corners before Ueda stopped and cursed.

“We lost him.”

“He can’t have gone far. Maybe he entered a building?” Watanabe said and was already about to try one of the backdoors of a random building when they heard a laughter and froze.

Taiga hissed as Shintaro buried his nails in his arm. The boy had turned completely pale and was looking to the direction where they had just come from. Following his look Taiga found the boy from before leaning on the wall at the corner, smiling at them with a victorious smile.

“Would have been too easy I guess,” Ueda let out before he stepped I front of everyone. Not just because Shintaro seemed ready to get swallowed by the ground, but also because he feared that Watanabe could try something stupid if he got provoked.

“Yes, indeed. You really thought I was that stupid? Shintaro, you should know me better,” the boy said in a dangerous voice and gave him a look that could almost be called playful.

“Where's Saku?” Watanabe asked right away and the boy turned towards him.

“Who?”

“Don't play dumb, I saw you at the attack. You killed one of our class 5 fighters.”

“Ah, that”, the boy said with a slow nod and shrugged with his shoulders next. “Your club was weak anyway.”

Watanabe was about to dash forward, but Abe hold him back, shaking his head.

“Taiga, we should get out of here, he is dangerous,” Shintaro whispered and pulled on the boy's sleeve and he agreed right away. Sure they could try to take him hostage and trade him against Saku, but the moment they would make a move the boy would be definitely gone the next second. He seemed fast and even though Taiga could maybe catch up to him he was sure that he wouldn't stand the slightest chance.

Ueda had heard them and made a step backwards, the others following his example, but the boy let out a loud laughter on that.

“Sorry, but play time is still not over.”

They heard them the next moment and before they could even think about running, about a dozen people had trapped them from different directions. “Why don't you play with us for a while longer?”

This time Taiga had no soothing words for Shintaro as he looked around panicked. The other boy made a few threatening steps towards them, but one of his own men stopped him.

“Reo, he is already pissed enough that you ran off for a stupid street fight. Bring them to him or he will definitely punish you later.”

The boy flicked his tongue, but stopped. “He seemed interested enough to come and see my fight though. But I think he found something even more interesting there.”

Reo looked back at the group trapped in their middle and his eyes stopped on Taiga who shivered as he formed this weird smile from before again.

“Anyways, let’s go!” The other one commanded and for a moment it seemed like Ueda and Watanabe got ready to fight their way out, but as the first gun got pointed at them they hesitated. More guns, as well as knives came into sight and they all shared a short and worried look, knowing that they had no other choice than to surrender for now.

***

The place they got led to was a traditional Japanese castle and it spread a weird atmosphere, almost as if they would have disturbed some old spirits with their arrival, even though the Mugen members seemed to be a way bigger disturbance to this place than they were.

The building had been damaged by the war, but the high stone walls around it had protected it quite well from any further destruction inside.

“Why the hell did he choose such a place?” Abe asked in a low voice.

“He likes extravagant places like this. Even though he doesn’t stay long in the same city he makes sure to find the weirdest hideouts,” Shintaro explained. “He is really extraordinary and not just in his taste of buildings.”

“I don’t really want you to go into details to be honest,” Abe replied with a kind of disgusted expression and Taiga didn’t really look that excited either. Ueda was walking protectively in front of him as always, but this time this wouldn’t make him feel better. He felt even more helpless than back at the time Fujigaya had kidnapped him and Kentaro and he didn’t want something similar to happen again. Just the thought of losing Ueda for good this time made him feel more than nauseous.

“They walked through a long corridor with a few sliding doors half open, showing some old tatami rooms and if they wouldn’t be that tense the boys would have actually laughed at the creepy surrounding. Reo led the way and they stepped into a huge room to another sliding door, revealing nothing but a wooden chair on a small podium at the end of the room. Behind it there was a banner pinned on the wall with “Mugen” written in red letters and no one would be surprised if it actually got written with real blood.

“What is he, the king of the new world or what?” Watanabe whispered in disgust and Abe elbowed him right away to signal him to shut up. A few men from before had followed them into the room and with a lot more members scattered all around the building there was no real chance of an escape.

“Oh I heard that we got guests, but I’m somehow even more pleased now that I see that a lost child found back as well.” Someone was heard behind them.

Shintaro, who had followed obediently until now, clinging to Taiga’s arm as if his life depended on it, because maybe it even did, froze to the spot and didn’t even dare to turn around to the man who stepped inside the room while the members made space for him.

The others all turned towards him and it seemed like Watanabe and Abe didn’t meet him until now either, which made him even more unlikeable. A leader which wasn’t fighting his own battles wasn’t the type of person Taiga wanted to think as strong of. He finally turned around as well after loosing Shintaro’s grip a little bit, but he froze almost the same way as the boy as he realized who was standing in front of him.

It was the man from the street fighting place, still in his white pants and silver shirt which made his entrance even weirder. How could he be the leader of such a troop? He already hadn’t fit into that place earlier, but a troop like this? Taiga stared in complete disbelieve and even as the leader seemed to recognize him and formed a lopsided smile he didn’t look away. Something told him that the situation had just gotten a thousand times worse than he had expected it.

“Well and he even found some interesting company,” the leader added and that was all it took to make Ueda almost freak as he realized that he was talking about Taiga. But he just needed to make one step for the members to get ready for an attack, but their leader waved his hand and they stood still, while he walked up to Ueda with his hands on his back and gave him a bright smile.

“You seem to be the strongest out of this group,” he said as he scanned him with an intense stare and Ueda had to gather all his patience to not make any snappy comment. “And I guess you also care a lot for the people you are traveling with.”

“Trust me I am going to kill everyone who dares to touch them.”

On Ueda’s threatening tone the leader raised an eyebrow, but didn't seem offended.

“I don't doubt that.”

He passed by him and Shintaro clawed his fingers into Taiga’s arm as he passed by them, but he didn't stop. He gave Shintaro a short sight glance and even though it lasted just for a second Taiga finally understood why Shintaro was so dead scared. Those eyes showed something that couldn't even be described as insanity anymore. Fujigaya had been insane, but this man was a demon. Behind this calm mask was something dark and dangerous hidden, something that he seemed to enjoy to the fullest while it was breaking other people into pieces.

The leader walked up to the podium and sat down. Silence followed.

“This is ridiculous! If you won't speak, I will,“ Watanabe let out impatiently with Abe trying to calm him down with no avail. “Where is Saku?”

“Saku?” The leader repeated and fell silent again for a moment. “I feel like I heard that name before.” Suddenly he clapped his hands once making everyone flinch. “How rude of me, I didn't even introduce myself.”

“Ha? We don't need your name”, Watanabe replied, but the leader totally ignored him as he stood up and bowed slightly as if in front of an audience.

“I welcome you to the current main hideout of Mugen. I am their leader, Domoto Koichi.”

“Great, nice to meet you. Now tell us where Saku is!” Watanabe yelled in an ironic tone while stomping his foot on the ground.

“Reo, would you help me out? You definitely know who they are taking about, right?”

The boy chuckled and walked up to the podium, bowing towards his leader. “He is one of the two members we took from the fight club in Sendai if I got this right,” Reo answered and turned towards the others with a mocking smile, while Abe had his hands full with holding Watanabe back so he wouldn't skin him alive.

“And where is he?”

“Dead...maybe.”

On that everyone froze, just Domoto didn't seem surprised as he nodded as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Oh such a shame, I guess your search ends-”

“HE CAN'T BE DEAD! TELL ME WHERE HE IS!” Watanabe freaked out of a sudden and Ueda jumped forward to stop him from a reckless attack when Abe couldn’t keep a hold on him anymore. The boy struggled a lot against his grip, but Ueda wouldn't let him run into his own death.

“Calm down, would you? No one gains anything if you die next,” Ueda hissed at him and somehow he was happy that Abe’s reaction was less dangerous, because the boy had just turned completely pale and seemed ready to faint any moment.

“Oh I'm sorry, did that upset you?” Domoto asked in a way to honest sounding voice. “But as Reo said, maybe! Our troop is scattered over Japan at the moment and he wasn’t with us, but when I remember correctly I heard that they killed one of the two members they took from your club, because he tried to flee. I didn't hear anything about the other one.”

Watanabe’s struggling got less on that, but it was still too dangerous to let go of him.

“Then tell us where he is!” Watanabe demanded and Ueda told him to shut up, but of course he wouldn't listen to him.

“Mhhh, sorry I can't do that. But how about you just search for him on your own? Maybe you are lucky and find him”, Domoto said to everyone's surprise and they all shared a confused look before the leader chuckled in amusement. “Oh I know those looks. You thought I would keep you here, right? Or even kill you. No worries, I have no reason to do so, as long as you don't give me one of course.”

The warning was clear and Taiga could feel how his heart slowly started beating in a regular rhythm again, but there was one more problem left and Domoto’s look fell on Shintaro next.

“Come here boy,” he demanded, but Taiga kept a hold on his arm not willing to hand him over. Exactly this reaction could give Domoto the right to attack him, because as he had said they were just safe as long as they didn't give him a reason to get angry. But to Taiga’s surprise he didn't seem offended by Taiga's reaction, instead he looked at him with the same weird smile than before at the street fight.

“I see, we won't easily come to a conclusion like this. Good that I'm on a good mood today. How about I let you all go?”

On those words Shintaro tensed even more. Fear about this being a cruel joke was written all over his face.

“Who said we are leaving like this?” Watanabe yelled, but this time Ueda snapped and pulled him back forcefully and pushed him towards Abe who took a hold on him right away. “If you want to see if your friend is still alive then you have so survive as well. We are leaving, now! I know how angry you must be, but trust me when I tell you that I know that things can get worse with each wrong word,” Ueda warned them both and even though Watanabe was still throwing daggers towards Domoto he didn’t object this time.

“Taiga, move!”

Taiga needed a moment to realize that he had kept staring at Domoto and Reo instead of retreating, because he still wanted to figure out if this was really some kind of joke. Domoto was also looking at him with a pleased expression about the attention he got from the boy, but the next moment Ueda grabbed him by the arm and pulled him and Shintaro out before luck would leave them again. It wasn’t like Ueda didn’t question the leader’s action, because it didn’t make sense to him at all. But he could think later, because for now they had to get away as far as possible.

***

“Are you sure that it is a good idea to stop here already?” Abe asked worried, but he seemed to need a break as much as Shintaro, even though out of different reasons.

They had left the city right away and Taiga had tried his best to calm Shintaro down and assure him that he was safe. When he had finally calmed down a little bit they were able to come up with a new plan for now and that one was reaching Tokyo as fast as possible!

Watanabe had made clear that he didn’t believe that Saku was dead. He wouldn’t easily surrender to them, but he wasn’t stupid, so running away when there was a chance of getting caught wasn’t his way of handling dangerous situations.

With the hopes that he was still alive and the rest of Mugen was on their way to Tokyo as well, followed by Domoto and the rest of his men, they decided to do the same. But they had to make sure that they wouldn’t stumble over more of their men for now or got overtaken by Domoto and his men, so they stayed away from the bigger cities, traveling with the lowest profile they could keep.

They ended up in an old school building which wasn’t in use anymore and Ueda had announced that they would spend the night there.

“We are on the road for over 8 hours straight already. Abe you are still not completely fine again and Shintaro needs to rest to finally calm down again,” Ueda explained and no one could actually deny that, so they moved to the gym and luckily they found a few mats they could use for the night.

“Is it too dangerous to make a fire?” Taiga asked as he realized that it wasn’t just him who was freezing. At least they still had some provisions and hopefully enough money to get food until they would arrive back in Tokyo.

“If we make it in the backyard no one should be able to spot it,” Abe concluded and Ueda nodded, knowing that they needed to warm up or they wouldn’t make it through the night.

“Then let’s see how much wood we can get together. There must be enough old tables and stuff to burn,” Watanabe announced and started walking away already.

“Wait, no one runs off alone,” Ueda said and Abe walked up to Watanabe right away. But Ueda’s look went to Taiga next and the worry was more than clear. Taiga was next to Shintaro to go with him, but even though the boy seemed to be a good fighter, he wouldn’t be of any help in his current state. “Okay so Abe and Watanabe, you stuck together and I go with those two.”

Again no one objected, but Ueda could feel Taiga’s burning stare and it didn’t vanish even when they gathered at the fireplace or while having dinner. Just as they decided to sleep for a while and Ueda said he was going to keep guard Taiga concentrated back on Shintaro for a while until the boy had finally managed to fall asleep with exhaustion taking over him. Watanabe and Abe also agreed to sleep for a while, but asked Ueda to wake them up later so they could switch and he could sleep for a while as well.

“Hey there,” Taiga said as he leant in the doorframe and Ueda turned his head towards him with a faint smile.

“You should sleep.”

“I know, I just can’t,” Taiga admitted and sat down next to Ueda, but the latter shifted away and for a moment Taiga thought he would get pushed away, but then Ueda pulled on his shoulder and made him lie down with his head on his legs.

“Might not be as comfortable as the mats, but better than nothing I guess.”

“Oh trust me, you are still my most favorite pillow ever,” Taiga said with a chuckle as he rested on his back so that he could look up at the other one. Ueda stroke a strand of hair out of his eyes and caressed his cheek with his thumb with a thoughtful look.

“You are angry at me, right?” He asked suddenly, making Taiga look away for a moment. “I guess I deserve that.”

Taiga let out a sigh and Ueda wanted to take away his hand, but Taiga reached out for it, entwining their fingers before looking at their hands for a while.

“I shouldn’t be angry at you. It’s myself I should be angry at. You want to protect me and you have all right to do so, after all you are my protector, right?” Taiga said and flashed a small smile, but Ueda couldn’t return it and Taiga’s look darkened again seconds later. “When I ran after Shintaro you were right, I would have lost if you hadn’t shown up. I know the strength of my opponents, but meeting so many people that are stronger than me makes me angry and I feel this weird urge to prove myself, to show you that I can take care of myself.”

“But you can. You have proven yourself a lot over the last months. Not just on our travel, but also before.”

“Oh really? When? When I got kidnapped by Fujigaya? When Hasshi almost killed me? Oh or how about the guy who tried to rape me when we were searching for you and Nikaido? How about the soldiers who actually succeeded? Shall I mention all the other happenings as well? You should remember them all, as you were normally the one to rescue me out of all that shit.”

“If you saw your face right now, you would know exactly what I mean!”

Taiga raised an eyebrow in confusion, but Ueda finally cracked a brief smile in response. “You just listed some of the worst incidences in your life without showing any uneasiness about it. You are not afraid anymore of what happened to you. You learnt how to deal with your past and you are ready to challenge everything that comes your way, tell me where the weak point is in this?”

Taiga let his words sank in for a moment with a lost stare into the night sky before a bitter chuckle escaped him. “But being aware of what happened and what could happen is still different from actually being able to change it. I am still not strong enough to save anyone, I can barely save myself.”

Taiga whined as Ueda hit him against the forehead with a scolding look. “Do you see that boy back there in the room sleeping? He is here because of you! Do you really think Shintaro would have even decided to come with us without your support? Who knows where he would be by now, still on the streets stealing things or already killed while trying to do so?”

“I didn’t do anything, but talk to him. I just thought that I could maybe understand him the best and that I could maybe help him calm down.”

“Not maybe, Taiga! This is exactly the strength I am talking about! You give people courage, even at moments when you are the one who needs support.”

“Don’t tell that Kentaro or he will laugh,” Taiga let out and flinched already when Ueda lifted his hand threatening, but this time he freed his other hand as well and cupped his face to make sure that the boy wouldn’t look away.

“You both hit rock bottom at that time! When you were lost Kentaro helped you up again, but you did so as well! I was there, I saw it! Don’t downgrade yourself like this! You might not be the strongest fighter in the ring, but for me you are a 5th class fighter in your mind.”

Now it was clear why he didn’t want him to look away, because Taiga would have actually laughed at his words if he hadn’t seen his serious look while saying it. The feeling of being a failure and not being capable of keeping up with everyone, which had put a lot of pressure on him recently, felt a lot lighter suddenly and got replaced by something new, something strong. Was it pride? He reached out for Ueda’s cheek and gave him a thankful smile before he lifted his head just a little bit as Ueda already bent down to meet him halfway for a passionate kiss.

“Thank you,” Taiga whispered against his lips, moving his fingers carefully over the other one’s face. “I am not sure how things would have turned out without you by my side.”

“To be honest a few years ago I would have been worried, but now I am completely sure that you can handle the worst of the worst even without me, because you have learnt not to give up and not to break whatever hardship life throws at you.”

“And unfortunately I am life’s most favored target.”

“You are just irresistible, but too bad for everyone else that I am bad at sharing.”

Taiga let out a chuckle on that before he gave Ueda another short kiss and snuggled into his embrace and got pulled almost completely on the other one’s lap to make sure that he had it as comfortable as possible. He really needed to rest and it didn’t take long until he fell asleep in his arms and Ueda kept stroking his hair carefully and with a light smile.

He had meant every word he said and he was sure that Taiga had finally understood his own strength as well. He just had to figure out how he could use it the best, but hopefully, except for comforting Shintaro, he didn’t have to use his mental strength for other things soon.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey, you have a minute?”

Ueda was more than surprised to see Watanabe in the doorframe towards the veranda, but he pointed next to him and the boy sat down hesitantly.

Two more days had passed and finally even Shintaro had calmed down a little bit. They moved fast and without any problems so far. But of course Watanabe and Abe were impatient, which was more than understandable. If their friend was still alive then they wanted to know and rescue him, because now that they knew their enemy it got clear that their friend’s life was in danger every passing day.

They had stopped at an abandoned farm house right next to the last town they left, more than happy to find the whole furniture inside. Everything was of course dusty and they had to set up a fire again to have at least one place to warm up, but it was better than sleeping outside.

Ueda had volunteered for the first guard and he sat on the wooden balcony at the front of the house, the fire not even big enough anymore to feel the warmth up there, but Ueda didn’t mind. He was relieved that Taiga had also agreed to rest without any complains, after their talk the other day Taiga seemed to get his confidence back at least slowly.

“Can’t sleep?” Ueda asked as Watanabe kept looking up into the dark night with a lost stare.

“Same question for you. You always keep guard, way longer than you should!”

“I guess it is too obvious by now, right?” Ueda said with a chuckle on which Watanabe cracked a small smile as well.

“I think it is normal. You want to make sure that Taiga is okay and I have to take care of Abe, while trying to not freak him out, because I can’t take it anymore that we still didn’t find Saku.”

“I guess you were a really good team back at your club?”

“Not from the beginning though,” Watanabe let out with a nostalgic smile. “When I entered the club, Saku and Abe were already there. I entered in the 3rd class and Saku was in the 4th. We fought a lot, not just inside the ring and Abe always had to take care of our wounds and that wasn’t easy with both of us in the same med room. In the end Abe freaked and yelled at both of us to finally cut it out. We both laughed so much at him that he turned completely pink up until the ears. It was just so unusual for him to get loud and freak like this. But somehow we all bonded after that and ended up to built the strongest friendship I’ve experienced so far in my life.”

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but hearing that I can totally understand why you freak so easily and are so impatient. You must feel like walking through hell,” Ueda said understanding and Watanabe let out a bitter chuckle.

“Hell, yeah maybe that is the right word for how I am feeling inside at the moment. Every day on which I don’t know if he is okay feels like another dagger is stepped into my chest. It drives me insane.”

“I know that feeling. We had some trouble over the last year in our club and I had to stay away from Taiga as far as possible, which ended with him being in even more danger than I wanted and somehow everything turned out worse than we all had expected.”

“But you found back together right?”

“With a lot of luck and through Taiga’s strength.”

“He likes it to talk himself into the ground, right?”

This time it was Ueda who chuckled and nodded. “He is really good in downgrading himself that is for sure.”

“There he has something in common with Saku. Even though he is the stronger one of us two, he always tries to take care of everyone, forgetting about himself and then he suddenly drowns in his own misery, because he didn’t take enough care of himself.”

“Wow, I guess those two should never meet alone or they will seriously drown together in their negative emotions forever.”

Both of them started laughing on that statement, but it was true after all. They were needed to cheer up their friends and keep their beloved ones on the right path after all and Ueda had to admit that it felt good to be needed. Taiga didn’t need the protection he received from Ueda over the last years anymore. Now he needed to be comforted and reminded that he had already reached a point where he could take care of himself better than he thought.

“I guess we should be happy though that we are still needed,” Watanabe let out with a light smile as he looked into the small flames flickering in front of them.

“Without Taiga I would feel kind of useless to be honest. I guess I have to remind him that it is not just him who needs me, but also me who needs him.”

“Good point, I should remind Abe of that as well and Saku...if we find him.”

Ueda clapped him supportive on the shoulder as he saw how the boy’s look changed to something more gloomy. “We will find him! Never give up before you tried until the very end, everything can change, even if the situation turns to be hopeless at some point.”

Watanabe nodded with a brief smile. They should really have a talk with the others about what they had just talked about, to remind them that protecting them didn’t mean that they were weak. Protecting them was what they did best and what they needed to express how much they loved the other person.

***

Taiga’s exhaustion had finally gotten the best of him and after he had promised Ueda to rest properly he had fallen asleep almost immediately. They had put all the futons they had found in one room, feeling saver all together.

“Taiga?”

The boy let out an annoyed groan and wanted to turn around, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him and even though his body complained a lot he opened his eyes and found Shintaro sitting in front of him.

“Why are you not sleeping?” Taiga asked in a tired voice.

“I was until a few minutes ago.”

“Then sleep some more, you can’t tell me that you are not tired.”

“I am, it’s just…”

“What?” Taiga still refused to sit up and he looked over his shoulder towards Abe, but the latter was deep asleep and didn’t seem easily woken up.

“This place is huge and I don’t want to go alone.”

“Going alone where?” Taiga asked while rubbing his eyes, but when he saw how Shintaro looked away kind of embarrassed he finally understood and forced himself to sit up. “Oh sorry, sure I understand. Let’s go together.”

Taiga wasn’t sure if he would have wanted to walk around the house all by himself at night as well and they had already found out earlier that the toilet was at the far end of it, with two long corridors separating it from their room. The front porch where Ueda and probably Watanabe where sitting at the moment, because Taiga couldn’t spot him in the room, was also at the opposite direction. They had chosen a really spooky place this time that was for sure.  “Come on let’s go.”

Shintaro nodded with a relieved, but still apologizing look as they tiptoed out of the room to not wake up Abe.

“By the way, what are you planning when we arrive in Tokyo?”

“Eh?” Taiga’s sudden question made Shintaro look to the ground uncomfortably as they walked towards the second corridor slowly as they had to watch out not to stumble, because it was dark after all without electricity in the house.

“I actually didn’t think about it yet…”

“You don’t have to fight with us, you know that, right? You helped us more than you have to already.”

Shintaro stopped on Taiga’s words before they passed around the corner at the end of the second corridor and he turned towards Taiga who tilted his head. “To be honest I have the feeling I brought more trouble than that I helped you.”

The next moment Shintaro gasped as Taiga snapped a finger against the forehead with a small chuckle. “Stupid, it’s not like it is your fault that Reo saw through our plan or that Saku wasn’t with them. But thanks to you we found them in the first place and now those two can hope that their friend is still alive! Without you they would still be lost and desperate to find their friend. You helped more than you think.”

Taiga’s praising made Shintaro blush slightly, but he finally cracked a faint smile. “Thank you. Without you…”

It happened so fast and without any kind of warning that Taiga felt as if time stopped out of a sudden. Shintaro choked and jolted through an impact from behind which Taiga couldn’t see through the shadows and it took him a moment to realize that someone had appeared around the corner, as quiet and fast as a ghost.

“Without him you would maybe have survived,” the person in the shadows said in a mocking tone and Taiga recognized his voice right away, but his eyes were still on Shintaro who was staring back at him with wide eyes and then there was another movement behind him and the person stepped back and withdrew a knife from Shintaro’s back before the boy sank to the ground. The shock was so big that Taiga needed a moment to react and even though he wanted to catch Shintaro he was too slow and he saw how the boy fell to the front revealing the knife wound on his back.

“You’re next.”

This time Taiga reacted faster. He looked up at Reo who finally stepped out of the shadows. He had to react fast and effective or it would be the end for both of them. Reo dashed forward without a warning and Taiga didn’t even try to attack, but turned and ran, already knowing that he wouldn’t get far.

“TATSUYA! HEL-”

The rest of his words died in his throat as Reo reached him after a few steps already and slammed him in the next wall with his hand closing around his neck with such a force that Taiga choked. He tried to take another breath, but before he could do so Reo gave him another of his creepy lopsided smiles and turned the knife around in his hand hitting it accurately into his solar plexus. This time Taiga couldn’t even let out any kind of sound anymore. its aim had the effect of a hammer crushing his lungs precisely on one  point and Taiga clawed his fingers into the latter’s sleeves, trying with all his might to stay on his feet, but he couldn’t even see Reo’s face clearly anymore and his mocking laughter was the last thing he heard before everything turned black.

***

Ueda dashed down the corridor followed by Watanabe, but before they could even reach the room they had rested in, Abe dashed out of it and down the opposite corridor, showing them that Taiga’s scream had come from another direction.

“SHINTARO!” Abe’s panicked voice made them speed up and Ueda held his breath as they passed around the second corner, finding Shintaro on the ground, curled up in pain and Abe ripped off one of his sleeves to somehow stop the bleeding of his wound.

“Shit, what happened here?” Watanabe asked panicked and looked around, but couldn’t spot anyone or hear anything.

“TAIGA!” Ueda called out for him several times, but there was no answer. Most of the windows had been broken already, so whoever had attacked them could have gotten away towards every direction. Ueda tried to calm down and concentrate to spot any movement or hear anyone moving outside, but there was nothing, no sign of someone even intruding the place.

He kicked the wall with an outraged scream before he ran back towards the others. If he liked it or not for now he had to help where he could and he had to hope that Taiga was fine on his own. The fact that he wasn’t around meant at least that he shouldn’t be dead, right? At least this was the only hope Ueda could carry for now to not completely freak.

He found Watanabe and Abe on their knees next to Shintaro. The boy had gone completely pale and his breathes were short and painful.

“Abe, please tell me that he will survive,” Ueda asked worried, but the latter ignored him for now, examining the wound as good as possible, but he clicked his tongue after a moment.

“I can’t see enough. We have to carry him to another room and find some candles, flashlights or whatever. The best would be if he found some medical supply. I have some bandages and a needle and thread, but we will need some alcohol and clean water or the wound will definitely get infected.”

“Taiga…” Shintaro let out in a weak voice and Ueda crouched down next to him right away as he tried to reach out for him with his hand. He was shaking all over by now and it was clear to everyone that they couldn’t be sure if he could survive even if Abe had at least enough experience to help him as good as possible. Ueda took his hand and waited patiently for him to speak again, even though he was dying inside for him to tell what had happened.

“Reo...he appeared out of nowhere. He took him…”

“Damnit! Those bastards! What is this game they are playing with us?” Watanabe asked outraged and hit his fist on the ground, tears of rage shining in his eyes. Ueda on the other hand relaxed a little bit, because at least Shintaro’s words meant that Taiga’s life didn’t seem in danger...for now. He just had to somehow stay strong until they caught up with them and they would! A huge wave of rage built up inside Ueda, but knowing how much Taiga cared for Shintaro and how much the boy had helped them until now, he tried to stay calm and signaled Abe to stand back so he could lift him up.

“Let’s treat him first and make a plan after we can be sure that he is fine.”

“Ueda, are you sure…”

“He will be fine! He is strong,” Ueda said before Watanabe could continue and seeing how much Ueda struggled inside he nodded and helped Ueda to carry Shintaro instead. For now they were needed here and Taiga would scold them if they wouldn’t do everything they could to rescue Shintaro, after all it was more or less their fault that he ended up hurt and Taiga would blame himself the most, he had promised to protect him after all.

***

Taiga jolted violently as he regained consciousness. He took a deep breath and coughed as his lunges complained right away. He remained down wherever he was lying for now, because the moment he had opened his eyes everything started spinning and he needed a few moments longer to finally calm down.

“Awake already?”

On the sound of Reo’s voice right behind him he jolted again and this time he sat up without letting his body complain. As he wanted to stand up he realized that he was barefoot, which was actually a quite good move from them, because his chances of an escape were almost zero like this. He remained seated on the ground and turned towards him and the boy gave him his usual carefree smile. He was sitting on the ground with crossed legs and eyed him carefully. The same as at the street fight place his clothes were definitely more suitable for this environment than Domoto’s. While Taiga wasn’t wearing more than the light clothes he had on while sleeping, Reo had a winter jacket hanging lose over his shirt.  “You are really a tough guy to be able to move like that after one of my punches.”

Taiga didn’t answer. Instead he took a look around. He couldn’t identify his surroundings, but there was couch chair at the end of the room and the Mugen banner was placed over it, so he concluded that wherever Reo had brought him seemed to be their new hideout. The only other furniture was a table at the side of the room with some clothes on it.

Taiga closed his eyes once more, but then he remembered what happened and he looked at Reo with wide eyes and the boy tilted his head curiously.

“Shintaro! Why did you attack him?”

“Seriously now? Boy you just woke up in the Mugen hideout and your first question is about that traitor?”

“Traitor?” Taiga repeated in disbelief before he chuckled on which Reo’s expression changed to an even more curious one. “You call a brave person like him a traitor? You are all just cowards, that’s all! Following an insane person like Domoto just because he threatens you? Sorry but you are the traitors here, not him. When I got this right, most of you came from fight clubs and got forced into joining, but following his orders and killing people instead of trying to team up against him and break free again is the most cowardly act to me.”

Reo’s look darkened for a moment and then there was something on his face which was hard to interpret. Just for a brief moment Taiga’s words seemed to affect him, to make him seem even younger than he was, a broken expression on his face, but then he chuckled and his mocking smile was back before he got up and moved away from Taiga.

“I admire you for your courage to be honest,” Reo let out calm as he kept moving through the room and even though Taiga could get up he remained in a sitting position for now, keeping his strength together for a moment when he could use it.

“But that will also be your biggest disadvantage. He likes breaking people like you the most.”

Taiga shivered on his words, because he knew of course who he was talking about. He hadn’t forgotten his intense stare the first time they had met and the weird excitement he had shown when they had met again. Somehow he felt stupid for not realizing that something like this could happen. He should have calculated some weird move like this from a crazy person like Domoto. But he still couldn’t forgive them for attacking Shintaro as well. So they had really just let them go to ambush them later. All of this seemed to be some kind of game for their leader and Taiga already feared that he wouldn’t be able to win in it, because he didn’t know the rules, if there were any at all.

The door opened the next moment and when Taiga looked over his shoulder he wasn’t even surprised to see Domoto entering. Again he was dressed way too fashionable for his environment. This time his pants were black and his shirt was out of silk again, but in a bright red with a black coat covering him.

“Oh you are already awake, I guess Reo went easy on you,” Domoto said in amusement.

“Not really, but he seems to be a tough one,” Reo let out and shrugged his shoulders. Domoto moved over to the table at the side of the room. Taiga tried to calm down and let out a long breath confused as he could see the air he had breathed out, but then he finally realized that he was shivering. He had no jacket after all and the ground was ice cold so he finally dared to slowly stand up.

Domoto took the clothes from the table and moved over to Taiga who took a step backwards right away. Domoto stopped a few steps away from him and held out the clothes towards him. Taiga eyed them suspiciously. It was a black shirt and black loose pants which seemed slightly warmer than his clothes. He raised an eyebrow at Domoto as the latter didn’t say anything, but kept smiling at him.

“What? You don’t really expect me to change into those, do you?”

“What would you say if I did?”

“I guess my answer would be screw you!”

Domoto’s look changed abruptly on Taiga’s harsh answer and Reo made a weird sound next to them, covering his mouth with one hand as if he tried to hide a smile.

“I guess my intuition was right regarding you,” Domoto said in a way too calm voice as he walked up to Reo instead and handed him the clothes, before he moved over to the couch chair and sat down. He kept looking at Taiga for a moment, but the boy didn’t move. He knew that even though his way towards the door wasn’t blocked that there were definitely a few dozen men around the hideout and Reo was also too close to get away from him fast enough. And he couldn’t really run as fast being barefoot.

Suddenly Domoto let out a long sigh and his look turned almost disappointed as he looked at Taiga again. “I am a nice person and give people a second chance before punishing them for their bad behavior, so why don’t you just change into the clothes?”

Reo stepped closer to Taiga and held out the clothes towards him again, but Taiga let out a disbelieving chuckle before he faced Domoto with an angry stare. “You really think I would just follow your orders like this? Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not getting as easily scared as you might have hoped.”

“Really? Oh well, then I guess we have to change that.” With a movement of his hand towards Reo the boy dropped the clothes to the ground and let his jacket slide from his shoulders before he approached Taiga with fast steps. Taiga gasped as the boy revealed his knife again, but he didn’t even have time to react as Reo grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer. Before he could struggle he had sliced the front of his shirt in half.

“What the hell? Let go!” Taiga started struggling as Reo let the knife vanish again and tried to strip Taiga out of what was left of his shirt. Putting all caution behind Taiga lunged out for a punch intuitively, but Reo dodged it and for a moment they kept fighting with Taiga yelling at the boy. Domoto crossed his legs, watching the scene in front of him in amusement until Reo got the upper hand and stripped Taiga forcefully out of his shirt.

Now the cold was making it even harder for him to not start shivering even more. He threw a side glance at Domoto who stared back at him clearly entertained.

“What the hell do you gain out of doing this?” Taiga hissed at him, but the latter just shrugged.

“What are you gaining through your resistance?”

“Getting away from another freak as fast as possible I guess,” Taiga let out, not even trying to hide his mocking tone. Again Domoto’s excitement level seemed to make another jump through his behavior and he looked at Reo once more who moved right away, but this time Taiga went on distance.

“The more you struggle, the more I have to hurt you,” Reo said warningly, but Taiga didn’t care. He had survived Fujigaya’s twisted plans and he wasn’t planning on giving in to any other freak which crossed his way randomly. All he had to do was playing for time until Ueda and the others would find him. On the thought of Ueda he felt nauseous suddenly. Not knowing what happened to Shintaro was bad enough already, but he was sure that Ueda was a mess by now, blaming everything on himself. Distracted through his thoughts he couldn’t react fast enough as Reo suddenly jumped at him and threw him to the ground. Again he had his knife in his hand and grabbed the seam of his pants. Taiga tried to twist away under him, resulting with the knife cutting him on the waist and he breathed in sharp.

“Reo, would you be a little bit more careful?” Domoto let out in a serious tone and even though Reo kept his carefree smile, Taiga noticed the short moment of hesitation. The next moment Reo grabbed him by the hair and brought their faces closer, now a dark expression on his face.

“I swear if you bring me into trouble I’ll make you pay for it!”

“Oh now I feel so sorry,” Taiga answered ironic, but then Reo turned the knife around in his hand and hit him with the handle against the side of his head on which Taiga let out a pained yelp, turning to his side. Reo ignored him and sliced the side of his pants open, this time making sure not to cut him.

“BACK OFF, YOU ASSHOLE!” Taiga suddenly freaked to Domoto’s obviously satisfaction as he leant forward and looked at the boys with a smile as Reo cursed when Taiga suddenly kicked him away. But he launched himself at him again and succeeded in getting the upper hand once more pulling away Taiga’s pants, leaving him with nothing more than his underwear.

Taiga took a deep breath and sat up again, trying hard to keep a strong front. Domoto’s eyes were shining now and Taiga wanted to smash a stone on his skull. Had he brought him here just to embarrass him? Whatever it was that had made Taiga interesting for him, the boy wouldn’t lose in this game. He refused to show even a single moment of weakness. Ueda had said it, in his mind he was a class 5 fighter. It was time to prove him right.

“You still don’t want the clothes?” Domoto asked as he got up and Reo picked up the clothes to hand them to his leader who crouched down in front of Taiga and held them out towards him with a warm smile which seemed so convincing and trustworthy that Taiga needed to gather all his calmness to not yell at him. In the end Taiga just shook his head.

“As you wish, then I guess we will see how strong your willpower is.”

Domoto got up and placed the clothes back on the table before he nodded towards Reo who picked up his jacket and walked over to the door without another word. Domoto followed him and Taiga eyed him with a suspicious glare.

“I hope for some progress until I am back,” he said before he closed the door and the sound of it getting locked from the outside was heard next before silence followed.

Taiga finally dared to take a deep breath again and when he breathed out it came out with a shuddering sound. He scanned the room once more, but there was nothing. No windows, no other doors or ways to escape. Just a single lightbulb flickering on the ceiling and he eyed the clothes on the table again before he got up with a sigh and walked over to take a look at them. It wasn’t like they would be that warm and with him being barefoot he would still feel freezing, but the cold was making it already hard for him to stop shivering at all.

He let out a quiet curse and turned away from the table and shook his head. Wasn’t it too early to play by his rules? He didn’t want him to feel as if he had broken him right from the beginning. He kept moving through the room, crossing his arms to his chest, mostly to keep warm as much as possible. The question was if it was such a good idea to challenge the leader’s patience that much? He had seen how frightened Shintaro was and he knew that there were good reasons for it. And he honestly wasn’t sure if he wanted to experience the same treatment himself. But it was too soon to even think about giving in even a little bit.


	6. Chapter 6

“I got everything from the list,” Watanabe yelled as he ran back into the room around noon. As the fastest runner of the remaining people Abe had written him a list and they had used most of their money to send Watanabe to the town’s doctor to get some medicine and other supplies Abe needed to treat Shintaro. Abe had explained that Shintaro wouldn’t even survive the way back to town in his condition, because Ueda would have to carry him for at least an hour and his body would give up on that way. So Watanabe had gotten the things together as fast as possible, while Ueda helped Abe with the boy’s treatment as good as he could. They had placed Shintaro on the table in the old kitchen and luckily they had found some bowls they had filled with clean water from the river nearby. They just had to wait for Watanabe to bring something for sterilize the wound before Abe could sew it.

“I would say Shintaro was more than lucky. A deep wound like that could have killed him in an instant, but the knife seemed to have missed the vital points by inches. If it doesn’t get infected and he takes a few days rest, he should survive,” Abe announced as he took the bag from Watanabe and took out one injection, inserting it into Shintaro’s arm, before he searched for the iodine and the pad he had ask Watanabe for as well. Carefully he dabbed it on the wound and Shintaro let out a groan, but didn’t open his eyes. Ueda had drawn small circles on his shoulder the whole time, not sure what else to do to comfort him and slowly the boy seemed to relax and a few minutes later he finally seemed to have fallen asleep regardless the hard surface he was lying on.

“Ueda?” Watanabe asked hesitantly as the older one dropped to a chair and buried his face in his palms with a sigh. “What are you going to do? If you go now you might somehow be able to catch up with them.”

“And how? Except for the fact that it was Reo, we know nothing. What if they actually came with a car? They could be already half the way back to Tokyo and even if not, they could be everywhere, I don’t even know where to search.”

“But you can’t just sit around here,” Abe let out worried, even though it was obvious that he also didn’t know what to do.

“I am not just sitting around, I am making a plan.”

“Which would be?” Watanabe asked curious.

“The fact that he took him instead of killing him makes me believe that his life shouldn’t be in danger as long as he doesn’t do something stupid and we are talking about Taiga, he knows perfectly where the limits are if he is up against a strong opponent. Searching for him without a hint will just delay us. Maybe the troop is traveling by train or car, maybe they are traveling like us and stopping at some cities on their way back to Tokyo, but we don’t know. All we know is that their final goal is Tokyo, so we will make sure to find them down there!”

“What if it is too late?” Abe asked worried, but Ueda shook his head and clenched his fists into the fabric of his pants. “No time to think about something like this. Taiga would skin me alive if I left you guys alone, so we are going to wait until Shintaro feels better, so that I can carry him without the risk of his wound opening again and then we will try to find a way to reach Tokyo as fast as possible.”

“Ueda is right,” Watanabe agreed. “If Saku is safe then he will also end up in Tokyo with the troop in the end. We have the best chances of finding them down there instead of on the way. Maybe we could also get some help from fighters in Tokyo.”

“Oh definitely, trust me I know already a handful of fighters who will love to kick their asses,” Ueda said and it brought a nostalgic and also confident smile on his face.

“Okay so I guess we are grounded for some time, but at least we can try to come up with a plan and gather information if we stumble over other fight clubs or troops on the way,” Abe said encouraging even though the gloomy atmosphere in the room made it hard for them to stay positive.

“For now we have to believe in the strength of both of them,” Ueda said and the other two nodded slowly, all of them hoping that the two would be okay until they were able to come to their rescue.

***

When the door opened again Taiga wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but seeing Reo coming in alone made him relax a little bit even though he didn’t know why. After all it had been the boy who had attacked him and not Domoto himself. Reo seemed impressed by the fact that Taiga had still not touched the clothes even though he was shaking bitterly by now and he rolled his eyes at him on which Taiga shot him an angry glare in response. To Taiga’s surprise the boy carried his shoes and a winter jacket and he tossed both on the table before he crossed his arms to his chest.

“Could you just finally get into the fucking clothes? I am not in the mood to force you in them.”

“Oh I would like to see you try,” Taiga shot back, leaning against the wall at the opposite side of the room. Reo licked his lips before he snatched the clothes away from the table and approached Taiga with threatening steps, but Taiga didn’t move and instead of attacking Reo pressed them against his chest.

“We are going to leave to the next city in about thirty minutes with or without you being dressed. Trust me Domoto will enjoy it even more to have you walk next to him the way you are. Like this he wins his game without even trying.”

Taiga didn’t reply, instead he chewed on the inside of his cheek nervously, knowing that he had to calculate his moves carefully. If he kept refusing, Reo would either hurt him bad enough so that he could actually dress him without Taiga being able to defend himself anymore or he would just drag him out to the streets as he was and somehow both actions weren’t of his liking.

“I can see that you are really strong, I can read it in your eyes,” Reo said to his surprise, this time without any mocking expression on his face. “But being strong and being stubborn is a different matter. How about you safe your energy for a fight worth winning?”

On Reo’s scolding tone Taiga looked at him in complete confusion. One moment he had this freaking attitude which gave him shivers and then he spoke like someone who tried desperately to find a way to solve things without a fight, he couldn’t read him at all. As Reo shoved the clothes against his chest with a little bit more force Taiga finally grabbed them and Reo stepped back.

“I’ll be back in about twenty minutes and I will drag you out of this room, with or without those clothes.”

With that Reo left him alone again and Taiga stared at the clothes in a complete loss. He tried to figure out the smartest move, but his head already started aching again and when his look fell to the warm winter jacket on the table he clenched the clothes in his hands with gritted teeth.

“Damnit! So much to my mental strength,” Taiga let out in a low voice before he unfolded the shirt and pulled it over his head. Finally dressed completely again, with shoes and a jacket as well his body finally stopped shaking, but now his mind was trying to cause him pain. He felt like he had lost from the very first moment.

“Waiting for a fight worth winning?” Taiga repeated Reo’s words and even though his words told him that Domoto had a lot more planned for him, it also made him relax a little bit. No he still hadn’t lost. He wouldn’t let him downgrade him as he pleased, but maybe he really needed to find out about his limits step by step first, before he could decide for a fitting strategy.

To his surprise there were just about a dozen men waiting for them outside when Reo came back with a pleased smile as he saw him dressed. This time his teasing smile was back on his lips and Taiga felt like yelling at him again, but he held back and followed him obediently. The sun was still up, but it seemed to be early afternoon already. So if he hadn’t been out for more than a few hours, what he hoped, then it hadn’t been a full day since he had been brought here and Reo couldn’t have brought him too far away on his own, right? So maybe Ueda and the others could catch up to him, but Shintaro was definitely in a bad condition if he had survived and somehow Taiga knew that they would take care of him first, after all that was what he would do and Ueda knew that.

“Great, I see you decided to take the clothes, what a relief and here I thought you wouldn’t like them,” Domoto greeted him with his typical warm smile and he scanned the boy with an approving nod. “Perfect, then I guess until we reach the next hideout, you can follow me like this. We will see later how much taming you will need.”

“Taming?” Taiga let out in disbelieve, but Domoto didn’t seem to feel the need to explain himself as he turned and started walking away from the hideout casually. Instead of following him the men remained rooted to the spot and Taiga looked confused from them to Reo who pointed towards Domoto instead.

“Go,” he said, but Taiga still didn’t move.

“You are not actually telling me that you are walking to the next city?” Taiga asked confused on which Domoto turned back towards him and tilted his head.

“Why is that? I like taking walks you know,” he let out honestly and his played nice attitude made Taiga’s anger boil inside again. “My troop is huge and would attract attention everywhere and I don’t want any big ruckus on my way back to Tokyo, so we are all leaving on different ways, just finding together in the bigger cities. I didn’t say we are going to walk the whole way, but for now I feel like taking a walk and I would like to have you next to me.” Of course this wasn’t some nice offer or question, the dangerous looks of the men and the way Reo stepped closer to him as he still didn’t move signaled him that he had to choose between getting forced to do something or do it voluntarily once more. But it was just a walk, right? It wasn’t like there was something threatening or downgrading about it. He sighed, but finally moved and stopped next to Domoto whose eyes filled with some weird kind of joy.

“Then I guess we can go,” he announced and started walking, Taiga moved slightly behind him, but still close enough for Domoto to be able to look at him from the side.

“So, Taiga, tell me about yourself.”

“Pardon?”

Domoto’s sudden and innocent question caught him completely off guard and he had to concentrate on keep walking instead of stopping to look at him in disbelieve.

“Oh come on there must be something interesting in your life. It is not like I want you to tell me your darkest secrets, we are not at that point yet. All I want is to have a nice conversation on our walk.

Not at that point yet? Taiga wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but he also didn’t really know what to tell him, because he didn’t know what he wanted to hear anyways.

“Tell me about your protector.”

Now his look went from confused to shocked and he needed a moment to find words to reply. “How did you know that he is my protector?”

“Oh boy, what do you think in what kind of environment I lived my whole life? I can read people better than they can themselves. It was clear from the first moment I saw you together in my hideout.”

Taiga just kept staring to the ground for a moment. The shock about him knowing about Ueda being his protector was actually bigger than he thought. Realizing that he had a protector also resulted in knowing that he was obviously weak, at least in the matter of fighting. Not that this hadn’t already been clear after Reo had succeeded in abducting him without problems, but it made Taiga feel like an open book to Domoto and he didn’t like that at all.

“So how come he became your protector?”

Taiga needed a moment to realize that Domoto had said something again and he opened his mouth, but no words came out. No this was something he couldn’t tell him. This got beyond the small talk Domoto pretended to have with him. He wouldn’t fall into his trap and blur out any secrets that could bring him into trouble. Knowing about Ueda being his protector and knowing about them being together or even about Taiga’s past was a complete different matter.

“I see those questions are still too early for you.”

Taiga cursed inside. Did he really think he would tell him at some point?

“Then let me tell you about myself for now,” Domoto started as he moved his hands to his back and kept walking with his look directed to the sky. “I am actually a really calm person. I guess you have noticed that already. But life taught me that all people have a place and I want everyone to know that place. I hate ignorant people.”

Before Taiga could stop himself a mocking chuckle escaped him, but Domoto didn’t seem offended by it, instead he looked at Taiga curious. “And what gives you the right to decide that my place is here? You took me here by force. I am not here on my free will.”

“Some people are just too blind to see where they belong. If shown the right path they will understand their place sooner or later.”

Domoto looked over his shoulder and when Taiga followed his gaze his look fell on Reo who walked a few meters behind them, his calm and playful smile back on his face. He wasn’t spending them any attention, but looked around to the few farm houses they passed by, now that they were about to completely leave the town behind.

Taiga hadn’t forgotten about the other men following them as well and he knew that if he tried to run he wouldn’t get far.

“And what makes you believe that you have the ability to see what is right and wrong? It sounds as if you want to play god.” Taiga knew that he had to be careful of his choice of words, but what Domoto had just revealed sounded just too ridiculous.

“God? Mhhh, no I wouldn’t go that far, but I saw a lot of people living a lie and getting lost on their ways, I just want to help them find their right place. But unfortunately not everyone can have a place at the top, not everyone has the ability to lead people.”

“But what about those who doesn’t want to be led?”

“If they can’t lead themselves, they need someone to do it that is unavoidable, it is like a natural rule.”

Taiga shook his head on their ridiculous conversation. Could there really be so many insane people in the world that he had managed to build his troop with loyal members? And also those he had forced to join, how had he managed it? All Taiga could see was a really confused man who seemed to have nothing else to do than brainwash people and ignore the meaning of free will.

“I am not going to let anyone rule over me,” Taiga let out more talking to himself than to Domoto, but of course the latter had heard him and suddenly his smile grew wider and the weird excitement was back in his eyes.

“Yes your eyes told me that from the very beginning. But you don’t seem to have the will to lead anyone, which makes you so interesting.”

“The world is not just divided in black and white, it’s not like I have to decide for a side.”

“By not being willing to decide, you have already left the decision to someone else.”

Taiga let out a sigh and buried his face in his palms for a moment. This conversation gave him a headache already. How was he supposed to analyze the guy and find out about his limits when he couldn’t even make sense out of a single word he said?

“Don’t worry, Taiga, you don’t have to overthink. I am here to guide you.”

Taiga rolled his eyes on that, because hasn’t he just made clear that he wouldn’t just follow his rules? But for now he was thankful that Domoto didn’t try to continue the conversation and if he was lucky they would soon reach a city with more people again, maybe he was lucky enough to get away somewhere after all. He couldn’t give up like this. Of course he had to be careful, but Shintaro had also succeeded in running, so maybe making him earn his trust could be a back-up plan if everything else wouldn’t work. The question was if he was ready to bow to all necessary rules which would cross his way if he decided to earn his trust and somehow Taiga doubted that.

***  
“Hey, how do you feel?” Abe asked as Shintaro woke up the next morning, now resting on one of the futons after Ueda had carefully moved him there the evening before.

“Like rolled over by a train to be honest.”

“That’s the fault of the painkillers I gave you, they might give you some mean headaches over the next days.”

Shintaro just kept staring into the room with an empty star for a moment and Abe sat down next to him, carefully taking a look under the bandaged on Shintaro’s back. “I guess in about four days we can finally start moving.”

“Why don’t you just leave me behind?”

“Why should we?”

“Come on, just because Taiga trusted me, doesn’t mean you do! I am not stupid, I see the looks Watanabe gives me all the time and his eyes throw silent accusations at me all the time.”

“He knows that he can’t blame everything one you, but he has no one else to blame at the moment so he releases all his stress and frustration towards you.”

“One reason more for you to just leave without me.”

“Sorry, but that won’t happen!”

Shintaro automatically tried to turn around as he heard Watanabe’s voice from the door, but Abe stopped him from moving too much and Watanabe walked around the bed so Shintaro could see him. He had his arms crossed to his chest and looked at him with the same unforgiving look as before.

“Yes you are right, I still don’t like it to have you around. Even though you decided to leave Mugen and you said you didn’t kill anyone, you still joined them and fought with them. You are one of the reasons our club got destroyed and our friend got taken away from us. Don’t expect me to forgive you that easily.”

Shintaro lowered his eyes to the floor and clenched the sheets, but didn’t reply. He had all the right of the world to be angry at him, but it would also make things easier for him if they left him alone, even though he didn’t know if he would survive without their help.

“But Taiga trusted you and he would definitely hate us if we left you behind,” Watanabe continued and Shintaro bit his lip.

“Did you hear anything from him?” Shintaro asked hesitantly, but Abe shook his head.

“Ueda is at the next town at the moment, trying to find out if there is another fight club nearby, so that we could at least gather some information before we move towards Tokyo.”

“I’m sorry. I should have seen this coming.”

“Actually yes, you should. You have been with them before,” Watanabe answered straight forward and it made Shintaro get smaller somehow. “But the fact that you didn’t, might prove that you weren’t as deeply involved with them as we thought. Maybe you were really just an unlucky idiot who needed to wait for someone like Taiga to bring out the good in you again.”

Without even looking at Shintaro, Watanabe left the room again and the boy looked up at Abe in confusion, but he got a bright smile in return and a clap on the shoulder.

“Give him some time. He needs to finally get a hold of the real enemy to calm down.”

Shintaro fell back with his head on the pillow and closed his eyes in exhaustion. He hadn’t felt this useless in an eternity. With Taiga gone the only person who had comforted him and didn’t judge him after he had finally escaped from his personal hell he felt totally useless. He couldn’t do anything to help him in return and he even slowed the others down, which had their own reason to chase after Mugen as fast as possible. But Watanabe was right, their encounter had changed him and when the right time was there he would make sure to repay Taiga for helping him to make it this far without losing hope.


	7. Chapter 7

 

They moved the whole day, but as expected they ended their walk at the next big city and took the train towards the next one. But Taiga’s hopes to finally find a way to escape had been cut short the moment Reo had stepped next to him and hooked his arm with his, revealing his knife hidden in his other hand under the jacket to make sure that got the message that an escape try would cost his life.

In the end they had to stay one night at a different place before they were able to make it to their next hideout, but again Reo wouldn’t leave his side. He wasn’t even sure if the boy had even slept a single second, not that he had slept longer than a few restless hours.

There were already other members of Mugen waiting for them at the hideout the next day and Taiga wondered why they were stopping in the first place. Seeing how many member Domoto had with him already before, he wondered how many other member were around and why he still tried to recruit more. Whatever he was planning for his arrival in Tokyo seemed to be big and somehow he feared already that their own fight club would be part of whatever was going to happen.

“We are going to stay here for the next two days, so you can take a good rest,” Domoto said as if Taiga was a guest he had to take care of instead of the prisoner he obviously was to everyone else.

But Taiga was distracted by the building in front of them before he could think of a mocking answer.

“Not seriously…”

“Get used to it! As Shintaro said, he likes extravagant places,” Reo said with a chuckle before he shoved him towards the tall arched wooden double door of the old church in front of them. And after he thought the mental hospital Fujigaya had chosen was the most fitting hideout ever, this one was maybe the most unfitting one for Domoto.

Instead of the typical altar in front there was a huge wooden chair prepared with the banner hanging over the cross in the back. The old and porous benches had been tossed to the side, so that the members could hold their meetings in the room, but at the moment most of them seemed to be at other locations.

Reo pushed him up the few stairs towards the chair after Domoto had already sat down. All the other men scattered in the building not spending the three any attention for now.

“Okay, I guess now that we have some time at the same place it is time to finally establish some more rules.”

This already didn’t sound good at all to Taiga, but for now he tried to stay as calm as possible. Reo pushed him in front of the chair and let go of him, but remained right behind him.

Domoto leant forward with an entertained smile before he dropped at the backrest and made a movement with his hand towards the ground. But Taiga didn’t understand and just raised an eyebrow at him.

“And here I thought you were a fast learner.” Domoto said kind of disappointed. “As I told you there are people who lead and people who follow and because you don’t lead you are going to follow! And those people are not supposed to look down at me, right?”

Now Taiga understood and shook his head right away before he could control the movement. “I am not going to bow to you.”

“Oh really? Are you sure of that?”

Domoto’s look fell on Reo for a moment and alone that made Taiga tense. Of course he would use Reo again sooner or later to make him follow his orders, but this time he wouldn’t give in as easily as with the clothes. This time it wasn’t his stubbornness stopping him, but his pride.

“I thought I could postpone this for later or maybe not use it at all, but to spare us the drama I should maybe make my point clear right from the beginning.” Domoto snapped his fingers and Reo stepped back and disappeared around a corner for a moment. When he came back a clinking sound made Taiga look at him and in shock he realized what he held in his hands. The chains weren’t even that bad, he could have guessed that he would get tight up sooner or later if he kept refusing, but what he held in his other hand made it clear that Domoto had seriously lost it with his philosophy a long time ago.

“A collar?” Taiga asked in disbelief, staring at the metal collar as Reo stepped with it next to him.

“Last chance to obey without me going all out on you and trust me I have a lot more methods to make you bow.”

“As I said I am not going to bow to you.”

“Is that your final answer?”

“No my final answer is fuck you!” Taiga hissed at him and Domoto chuckled in amusement before he nodded at Reo who let the chain drop for now and approached Taiga with the collar, but he backed off right away. Domoto snapped his fingers again and two of his men which had been at the opposite side of the room until now walked up to them and took a hold of Taiga before the boy could get away. He started struggling and tried to kick Reo away as he approached him, but he was forced on his knees after they stripped him out of his jacket.

“LET GO!” Taiga roared at them and shot Reo a hateful glare as the boy crouched down in front of him with the collar.

“If you choose the hard way then I guess you have to prove your strength. Let’s see who breaks first, the chains or you.”

Taiga cursed and tried to get away again, but Reo ignored him and closed the collar around his neck before he stood up to get the chains. He pulled them through a small ring on the front and when he nodded the two men finally released him. Taiga reached out for the collar right away, but when he touched the part at the back he realized that he would need a key and as Reo chuckled and he looked up at him he saw it in his hand. Without thinking he jumped up and attacked him, but Reo was faster and jumped to the side and gave a harsh pull to the chains making Taiga choke.

“Reo,” Domoto let out in a scolding tone and Reo bowed slightly towards him before he approached Taiga fast without giving him the chance to attack this time and grabbed him by the hair, pulling him back towards the chair.

This time Domoto stood up and stepped in front of Taiga with his hands on his back. “So I guess I made it clear where your place is?” This time there was nothing calm about his attitude, his refusal had finally made the latter angry for the first time. But Taiga let out a mocking chuckle instead. “Just wait and see, there will be a time when I am the one looking down at you,” Taiga hissed at him and Domoto raised an eyebrow and nodded at Reo who kicked Taiga into the back of his knee so that Taiga fell to his knees with a groan, but Reo didn’t stop there, again he yanked on the chains and Taiga moved his hands up to his neck to loosen the force it put on his throat, but Reo still had his other hand in his hair and forced him to bow forward.

Taiga gritted his teeth and tried to sit up straight again, but Reo pushed him down with such a force that his forehead almost touched the floor. He heard how Domoto went back to his chair and sat down and then Reo pulled him back in an upright position.

“As long as you don’t bow to me on your own and apologize for your rude behavior, I will make sure to punish you until you give in.”

Taiga almost laughed as he found himself trapped in the same situation as when he first met Fujigaya, but somehow he knew that this time it would turn out worse, but that was no reason for him to give in. The situation was worse, but he was stronger. Don’t give in, don’t break! Through the conversation he had with Ueda those words had become his tower of strength.

“How often do I have to repeat myself? I won’t bow to you,” Taiga repeated and Domoto let out a displeased sigh.

“And here I thought I could go easy on you. Then let’s get over with this fast. I hoped to spare you the hard way.”

Reo didn’t even need a signal this time before he stepped back, but before Taiga could try to get up or turn around Reo pulled with so much force on the chains that Taiga fell backwards, down the few stairs behind him and landed on his back with a pained yelp. The pain distracted him enough for Reo to be able to walk away once more just to come back with a new item in his hand and this time Taiga seriously started laughing.

“You insane people are all the same,” he let out disgusted as he looked at the leather whip in Reo’s hand. Taiga sat up again, but didn’t try to shift back. Reo was already in his reach so he would get hit by the whip one way or another. He had gone through something like this before and he was sure he could deal with it again. He wasn’t that strong when it was about defending himself, but taking in hits had unfortunately become one of his strong points.

“I know that confident look, but trust me this is going to be more unpleasant than you think,” Domoto announced and before Taiga could even ask what he meant Reo let the whip clash against his arm and the pain was worse than he had expected and he jolted, letting out a hiss as he looked at his upper arm in shock. The shirt was ripped and there were a few cuts on his arm.

“What the hell?” Taiga looked at the whip again and Reo grinned, showing him the end of it more closely. There were actually small metal wires attached to the end, which pointed out like needles.

“Told you,” Domoto said innocently and Reo switched back to his carefree smile, waiting for Domoto to give him the order to continue.

“Already any change of mind?”

“Go to hell! I know someone who would love to welcome you down there.”

Domoto just lifted his gaze towards Reo and the whip clashed against his hipbone next and Taiga gritted his teeth to prevent himself from letting out any sound.

Reo started moving around him and Taiga sat up on his knees, but didn’t try to turn around. The next impact was a direct hit on his back and the wires slashed over his back in full length. Taiga kept staring at Domoto with a death glare and the latter didn’t seem pleased by it at all and he gave Reo another signal and the whip hit the same spot on his back again, but he still didn’t show any reaction. Another sign, another hit. One more, two more. When Reo brought it down again Taiga finally escaped a small scream and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. That was all Domoto needed for now as it seemed, because Reo stepped back and there was no new impact. Domoto rose from his chair and went down to Taiga. He crouched down and grabbed the chains, pulling them up so that Taiga was forced to look up at him.

“I’ll give you until tomorrow morning to think about it once more. When you still refuse to bow to me then, I can still level things up.”

With another nod towards Reo he stood up and left for the door, but Taiga had no time to look after him, because Reo took the chains and pulled Taiga up the stairs again before he tied the chains around the armrest of the chair and locked them.

“Don’t even try to move that chair, trust me when I tell you that you won’t be able to either lift it or break it.” Reo took Taiga’s jacket with him and left for a staircase on the right, but turned towards Taiga once more. “Don’t try something stupid or I might have to use this sooner again than I want to. I will be back in a few hours.” Reo raised the whip threatening towards him before he vanished up the staircase. The two men from before seemed to have left with Domoto, but Taiga was sure that there were other people somewhere inside and outside the building and with one yank on the chains he realized right away that Reo was right, he wouldn’t be able to free himself. He wanted to lean back at the chair, but jolted as he was painfully reminded of the open cuts on his back. He took a look at the cut on his arm and hip as well and luckily the one on the hip hadn’t cut over the wound Reo had caused him with the knife, because it would have caused him extra pain. But his back was already making it hard for him to keep a calm breathing pace. He could feel how the blood was running down from the wounds and through all the impacts on the same spot he was sure that his back was a mess.

With no one around Taiga finally dared to show a moment of weakness and he dropped to the side and closed his eyes for a while.

“Don’t give in, don’t break,” he whispered and hoped that he could stand to his own words.

***

“Woah, Shintaro are you out of your mind, lie down!” Abe scolded him as he stepped into the room and saw that Shintaro was up and packed his things.

“No, we have to go!”

“Shintaro that’s suicide, you can’t just run around like this.”

“You said when the wound is healed enough for Ueda to carry me then we can go, right?” Shintaro said impatiently while Abe blocked the door.

“Yes I said so, but it’s been not even full three days, what if it rips open again?”

“Then you sew it together again.”

“It’s not so easy!” Abe yelled at him raising his voice.

“What’s going on? Shintaro, why are you up?” Ueda asked as he stepped into the doorframe, followed by Watanabe who raised an eyebrow at him.

“Ueda, please we have to go,” Shintaro begged him this time, but the older one looked at Abe instead.

“What do you think?”

“That it is too early, in two or three days we can maybe go, but the risk is too high.”

“Watanabe, you want to go, right?” Shintaro tried his luck with him this time and the latter formed an amused smile.

“Oh so now I shall make that decision to feel guilty later if you die? No thank you, I leave this up to Ryohei.”

“Thanks, at least once you are helpful,” Abe replied and even though he meant it, Watanabe hit him on the back of his head, but before they could continue their discussion Shintaro dropped to his knees and bowed towards them.

“Idiot, you are stretching the seams,” Abe scolded him, but Ueda held him back.

“I caused you so much trouble, not just now, but also back in your club and I know that I am guilty for a lot of what happened. But this time I want to make the right choice, before it’s too late. Please if you don’t want me to come with you, leave first, find them, and rescue them! I will survive on my own now that I can at least walk around a bit. I will follow you as soon as I can, but please don’t leave Taiga at this place all by himself. I’ve seen the things Domoto can do, I have experienced them and I don’t want to see him suffer. The same applies for Saku of course.” Shintaro paused for a moment, his forehead still on the ground, but they could hear his sobs and they all exchanged a brief look. “Please, rescue them.” Shintaro begged again and Ueda stepped forward and crouched down to him, clapping him comforting on the shoulder.

“We will rescue them, but we will do so together.”

On Ueda’s words the boy raised his head again, tears glittering in his eyes. Ueda looked up at the other two and Abe let out a sigh. “Whatever, fine! I have enough tools to save you about three times, so as long as Ueda doesn’t drop you all the time, we will be fine.”

Shintaro smiled at him before he looked at Watanabe who looked sceptic, but stepped forward and stretched his hand out towards him. “Make sure that you will kick some ass as well, don’t leave all the work to us.”

Shintaro escaped a chuckle mixed with a sob as he nodded and grabbed Watanabe’s hand and let himself get pulled up again with Ueda stabilizing him.

“Then I guess this is the start of our last journey,” Abe said and Watanabe hit him again.

“Don’t be so overdramatic.”

“But if everything works out fine we don’t have to keep traveling around, right?” Abe replied with a teasing smile and Watanabe rolled his eyes.

“Smartass.”

“Love you too.”

***

The rest of the day was just a blur image to Taiga. As promised Reo came back about two hours later and he had untied him to bring him to the toilet, let him drink and eat, but in the end he had ended up in the same position again. As expected he also hadn’t been able to sleep for the whole night, sitting on the cold ground, especially without his jacket and with the pain getting worse with every passing hour it wasn’t easy to calm down. And it had come even worse, because Domoto seemed in a bad mood as he came back the next morning and after Taiga had again refused to bow towards him he had ordered Reo to bring the whip out. Domoto had become more than impatient in the end and Reo had slashed Taiga with the whip over the face. Taiga could call himself lucky that he had missed his eyes. Three long cuts went down from his temple to his jawline and the bleeding just wouldn’t stop even though they had left him behind next to the chair for the rest of the day until night finally arrived.

His back was burning like fire by now, but Taiga took one deep breath after the other. Don’t cry, don’t give in, and don’t break! His list was getting longer, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t handle the pressure or the pain anymore. He was still fine. Reo had warned him that there were guards outside so he didn’t even waste his energy on an escape attempt.

He had curled up on the ground, lying on his side, the only part of his body which was still unharmed. He wasn’t sure if Reo had aimed for it, but all the wounds on his legs and arms were on the same side, leaving one side completely unharmed, for now!

He couldn’t really calm down, because it was after all freezing again and he still wore just his shirt, which was definitely already nonexistent on his back as often as Reo had whipped him. Even though he was bitterly shaking and the pain was almost unbearable by now, exhaustion forced him to drift off in a light sleep.

He didn’t dream of anything specific, but somehow Ueda’s face showed up in front of him and he clenched his fists, letting out a long breath. “A class 5 fighter in your mind…” Taiga whispered and tried to get a hold on the image in his mind with him and Ueda sitting at the fireplace.

Not sure how he had failed in noticing that someone had approached him, he jolted as something cold was suddenly pressed against his back, but as he tried to sit up a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“It will hurt even more if you move that sudden.”

“Reo?” Taiga turned to look over his shoulder and blinked in confusion as he watched how the boy put some medical supplies to the ground and took away the wet towel he had just pressed against his back. Taiga made a grimace as he saw how much blood the towel had absorbed from his back in such a short time. When Reo suddenly pulled out his knife he wanted to shift away, but Reo made a soothing sound and shook his head. “I am just going to cut the shirt so that the ripped parts won’t infect the wound.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because we are moving to the next hideout tomorrow and you are in no condition to do so at the moment.”

“So Domoto asked you to treat me after you did this to me?”

Reo’s look darkened for a moment and he looked up at him for brief moment before he concentrated on cutting the shirt again.

“He was the one, who ordered me to hurt you, but no he didn’t order me to treat you, but he also won’t stop me.”

Reo removed his hands and got something out of a small box, but Taiga didn’t try to turn around, he didn’t feel the need to sit up. For now he seemed to be safe.

“This could hurt,” Reo said warningly as he shifted back next to him and Taiga couldn’t suppress a mocking chuckle.

“Hurt? You are the one staring at my back at the very moment. You tell me which seems to hurt more?”

Reo didn’t reacted on his try to pick a fight and just brought the iodine soaked pad carefully down on his back and Taiga flinched a little bit, but otherwise he didn’t move. They remained silent for the rest of the time until Reo was done treating his back and ask him if he could sit up. Reluctant and with a hateful glare Taiga sat up and Reo took the knife back into his hand. “I brought clothes for change, so no worries, but I have to cut the rest of your shirt and a part of your pants to be able to treat the wounds on your leg and arm.

Taiga didn’t object, but wasn’t pleased either with the boy cutting him out of half his clothes again. On the other side it was way more painless than trying to strip normally out of them in his condition.

With skilled hands Reo treated all his wounds and bandaged them carefully, while Taiga still eyed him suspiciously.

“Let me see your face.”

Reo was already about to move a small pad up to Taiga’s face, but the boy grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“I can do that myself.”

“Don’t be stupid, I have no mirror here and you will most likely just make it worse than better without seeing what you are doing,” Reo replied and waited for Taiga to release his hand, which confused the boy. All the time Reo had just forced him to do what he wanted, why wasn’t he now? No, actually he had forced him to do what Domoto wanted, was that the difference? When he had to change his clothes the first time he also just talked to him when they were alone, instead of attacking him.

“Can I treat you now? It is getting late and you should get some rest as soon as I am done,” Reo said impatiently and with an annoyed groan Taiga let go of his wrist, but didn’t stop him as he moved his hand to his face to treat the cuts on it.

“Okay, done. Here your clothes.” Reo put all the medical equipment back into the bag he had brought and pulled out a new pair of pants and a shirt, this time they were white and Taiga wasn’t that happy about it.

“You can call it his second stage. He likes it when he can see the blood on the clothes,” Reo said straight forward without any change visible on his face. He was as calm as always. “I also brought this.”

Reo pulled out the winter jacket and threw it at Taiga before he got up. “Oh and one more advice. You learned to tell the difference between stubbornness and strength and found a way to test both of your limits. Now you should maybe do the same with your pride! A lost battle is no lost war.”

Reo didn’t turn back to him again and just walked up the staircase, leaving Taiga staring after him in confusion. By now he wasn’t sure anymore if the boy tried to help him, to actually hurt him even more or if he was already so far gone that he just didn’t realize how confusing his actions were for Taiga.

But for now he changed quickly in his new clothes and closed the winter jacket protectively around his upper body, without adding too much pressure on the bandages on the back.

“A lost battle is no lost war…”

Again he had been told something that would give him a headache, but for now he didn’t want to think, but to sleep and thanks to Reo’s treatment the pain had become less and he could finally rest at least for a few hours until a new kind of hell was definitely about to be brought upon him.


	8. Chapter 8

 

The next morning Taiga was more than surprised that no one spent him any attention. Reo was the only one who had freed him from his chains for a while so he could get to his usual routine with going to the toilet, getting something to eat and drink, but then he had ended up chained to the chair again and Reo left with the other members without a word. Domoto had barely looked at him, but somehow Taiga already knew that he wouldn’t have a break for long.

They had left a few guards at the place, so of course he couldn’t escape and this time he just tried to sleep as much as possible to gather enough strength for the following days. With them changing locations again he wasn’t sure anymore if Ueda and the others could even catch up to them, but they knew that they were heading towards Tokyo, so he put his hopes into a reunion there if he succeeded to survive until then.

He had finally once more fallen asleep in a sitting position, with his hurt back leaning against the chair as careful as possible as he heard shouting outside. The next moment the door opened and Reo stepped inside followed by a few of Domoto’s men. Taiga was able to spot more people outside and there were a few yelling at the troop members and he also saw that they actually had brought cars, or more like vans which looked like the ones they had used doing the war.

“Get everyone ready, we will leave right away,” Reo ordered the men and they scattered around the building. Taiga could hear how the first vans left outside and when Reo came closer he gasped as he saw that the boy looked quite beaten up.

“Are you-... What happened?” Taiga asked instead of if he was okay which he wanted to voice out first, but why should he care if he was okay?

“Can’t you guess? We stopped here for another fight club visit and it got a little bit ugly, that’s all.” Reo continued to free Taiga from the chair and took the chains in his hand signaling him to get up. “We are going by car this time and will meet up with a few more members in the next city. It will be our last stop before going directly back to Tokyo.”

Taiga panicked a little bit inside, because like that they were moving way faster than Ueda and the others could. “How long are we staying at the next place?”

“Depends on how fast things are going. I guess three days a minimum, maybe a few more.”

That was at least something. The more time they spent somewhere on the way back the higher the chances that the others could make it at the same time.

Taiga took a last look around and with a nauseous feeling he looked down at the blood stains on the ground which still remained from the beating the day before.

“Let’s go,” Reo announced and started moving, but made sure not to pull the chains and waited until Taiga walked up to him.

The moment they went outside most of the vans had already left and Domoto was also nowhere to be seen, which made Taiga feel relieved a lot. Reo told him to get on the back of one of the vans and he sat down opposite of him. There were just two more members in the back, which sat at the far end, most likely to keep an eye on Taiga, even though he was sure that Reo could handle him on his own. After all he seemed to be something like Domoto’s personal assassin.

The first minutes they all stayed silent, but even though Taiga tried to find out where exactly they were, he couldn’t actually detect their location just by looking out of the back of the van.

“So, how are you wounds?” Reo asked neutral after a while and Taiga stared back at him in light confusion, but the boy wore his smile again, not letting any other emotion crack his mask.

“Thanks to you it doesn’t hurt that much anymore,” Taiga started. “But I guess it won’t matter so much anymore as soon as Domoto makes his next move.”

“So I guess you are not willing to surrender?”

“Honestly, why should I? He will find something new to torture me with after that. Breaking one time would just show him that he can get what he wants from me over and over again and I am not willing to let that happen.”

Reo nodded slowly on that, suddenly seeming to be lost in his thoughts, before his smile got brighter again. “Your choice, but you know that I will definitely have to hurt you again like this.”

“What would happen if you refused to do so?”

Taiga’s question startled the boy completely, as if he couldn’t find the meaning of it in the first place and his eyes moved to the ground for a moment. It seemed like he hadn’t realized that his smile had completely faded and Taiga eyed him curiously, seeing how he was actually able to show other emotions as well. But what he saw made him feel bad for asking the question in the first place, but he needed more information, so if he hurt the boy with it or not, he couldn’t really consider his feelings.

“Are you following him on your own? Or were you actually from a fight club as well?”

Again a shadow passed Reo’s face and his hands started trembling slightly before he clenched them tight and tried to get back to his carefree self, but it was obviously hard and Taiga wanted to use his weak moment.

“What did he do to you? I don’t think you just followed him like this. There must be-”

“Enough questions, boy! Shut it!” One of the men in the back interfered suddenly and Reo flinched and closed his eyes for a few seconds before he looked up at Taiga with his perfect smile again. By now Taiga wondered if he was copying Domoto, because they both carried this calm smile and tried to not show any other emotion than calmness. But while Domoto had mastered it almost completely, Reo still seemed to have his problems, which gave Taiga the hope that he could actually reach out towards him somehow.

***

“Is he sleeping?”

On Ueda’s question Abe walked up to him and took a look at Shintaro who was resting on Ueda’s back and with a smile he nodded. “Yes he is asleep.”

“Finally,” Watanabe said slightly bugged on which he received a side glance from Abe. “Sorry, but come on it is not helpful if he tries to convince us all the time that he can walk on his own, if he is asleep it is easier for us to keep moving.”

Abe just rolled his eyes at him, but Watanabe let out a sigh and walked up next to Ueda. “You want me to carry him for a while? You walked with him the whole time already and even though you had already two nights to rest I feel kind of useless like this.”

Abe cracked a small smile on Watanabe’s words, but held back any teasing words. Ueda just kept moving, but gave him a thankful smile. “Thanks for the offer, I will definitely let you know when I need a break, but thanks to the break we got in the morning I will be fine carrying him alone today.”

They had left the same day Shintaro had begged them to finally travel back to Tokyo, but as expected the first day had been quite rough for the boy and Abe needed to sew some ripped threats in the evening. The next day that had tried to take it easier, but Shintaro had complained the whole time, ending with him and Watanabe fighting. After that Ueda had told Abe to keep Watanabe away at least far enough so they couldn’t snap at each other anymore, because Shintaro had tried to get down from Ueda’s back while yelling at Watanabe, resulting with his wound ripping open once more. So the last night Abe had scolded him for almost an hour that he had to be more careful or they would really consider leaving him behind so that he wouldn’t get hurt even more. On that the boy had finally calmed down a little bit and they had been lucky, when a truck driver had picked them up on the road in the morning and had taken them to the next big city. Like this they were sure that they had finally caught up at least a little bit to Mugen, even though they didn’t know their direct location of course.

It was already afternoon when they had arrived and now they were walking around the city searching for a place to eat and rest. Shintaro had finally given up and rested as much as possible over the whole day and had finally fallen asleep.

“How about we rest here for a while?” Abe asked as they walked past a traditional ryokan, but Ueda looked a little bit sceptic and Watanabe pulled out his purse, letting out a sigh as he looked at the rest of their money.

“It should be enough if we just stay for a few hours and order the cheapest meal they have. Otherwise I am not sure if we will make it back to Tokyo without having to stop somewhere for a few days to work.”

“Definitely not what I would like to do,” Ueda let out, but walked towards the building anyways, because after all Shintaro needed to rest from time to time.

There weren’t many people inside, so finding a quiet place in a corner wasn’t difficult at all and they woke Shintaro up so that the boy would at least eat something, but then they let him sleep for a while. They were sitting on the tatami floor and discussed how they could travel the fastest without running out of money, but it was already giving them all a headache as they realized that it wouldn’t be easy at all.

“I guess we just have to count on our luck that we will find someone else who can take us at least closer to Tokyo. If we hitchhike for a while we will reach Tokyo in latest a week, maybe even faster if we are lucky,” Abe conclude while rubbing his temples.

“I hate it to count on luck though,” Watanabe growled and dropped with his back on the tatami floor. His look fell on the door and two men entered which sat down a few tables away from them.

“I didn’t expect something like this to happen to be honest,” one said as they sat down.

“Seriously they never caused trouble or anything so I wonder why they got attacked,” the other one said while shaking his head.

“What I can’t believe the most is that they lost. It seems like they even killed three of their fighters.”

“I also heart that they took a few with them.”

Now they had gotten Watanabe’s attention and the boy ignored Abe and Ueda which were still talking and concentrated on the other two instead.

“A fight club as strong as them, destroyed by a troop I never heard of around here,” the first one let out with a sigh and crossed his arms, while the other one nodded.

“A strong group like them would have caught the town’s people attention long ago if they had been here all the time. And since the incident yesterday everything is quiet again. I bet they left after their attack. What was their name?”

“Mugen, when I remember correctly. They-”

Both men flinched when Watanabe jumped up all of a sudden, hitting with his leg under the table and Ueda caught their cups at the last moment before they could fall to the ground. Even Shintaro woke up with wide eyes after Watanabe had cursed out loud, but proceeded to the men’s table nevertheless.

“Shota, what are you doing?” Abe asked him worried and ran after him, followed by Ueda who told Shintaro to stay where he was.

“Did you just say Mugen was here until yesterday?” Watanabe asked the men directly and Abe held his breath on hearing that, looking at the men impatiently.

“What? Yes, I mean, I guess that was their name, that was what I heard,” one of the men said quite taken aback by the way the three surrounded the table.

“Are you sure they are not in town anymore?” Ueda asked, trying to keep calm as much as possible to not scare them away.

“We heard from some friends that they saw them leaving yesterday with some vans at the west side of the city,” the other one answered hesitantly and Watanabe looked back at Abe and Ueda with a weird mix of anger and disappointment. But nothing could compare to Ueda’s look, because the latter had stepped back with his eyes flickering all over the room as if he tried to find the reason why fate was mocking them so much. One day! Just one day too late!

“Do you know where exactly their hideout was?” Abe asked, but both men shook their heads.

“I just heard that it was around the west side of the city, the part that had still not been rebuilt after the war.”

That was enough information for them and while Abe thanked the men properly for their help, Ueda helped Shintaro back up and they started moving. It wasn’t like they would find any members Ueda was sure of that, but they could at least try and find some hints.

***

They had reached their new hideout in the evening and Taiga was more than shocked by the amount of people waiting for them this time. Slowly it dawned on him what big of a mess they were all stuck in again. If this troop was marching into Tokyo and joined with the rest of the members, which were still at other locations, there would be not just a small battle between the Titanium Triangle and Mugen, but a huge war. That would also affect the fight clubs in Tokyo and all the other Underground businesses and Taiga wasn’t sure if he wanted to see his city in flames again.

This time their hideout was hidden very well, somewhere in the mountains of Gunma and Taiga looked fascinated at the castle in front of him. It wasn’t something that seemed to be originally from Japan, but from an oversea country and the huge sand colored stones had protected it very well from the destructive force of the war.

When they entered, Taiga saw that there was a room on the right from the white marble staircase which led to the second and third floor. In that room a lot of the members were gathering and resting there for the night as well as it seemed.

There was a corridor and another big room behind the staircase with another few dozen members scattered around and at the end was a staircase to some place downstairs where Domoto had disappeared to when they had entered. Maybe down there were his personal quarters. Reo had brought Taiga upstairs without waiting for Domoto to return and on the 2nd floor he found the banner already placed on the wall above a throne, an actual throne! With all its pompous golden ornaments on the back- and armrest, as well as the nice red coating over the chair.

At the back of the room, on both sides of the throne were metal hooks on the wall, maybe they had been used for big candles to light up the room before, but now they had places candles on the window rails instead and it was enough to at least see where they were going.

Reo had explained to him that he and a few other members had their quarters at the third floor and as he had realized before already there were a lot of people downstairs. Again an escape try would be almost impossible. Also with being up in the mountains there had finally been snow falling and the whole place was covered by a small layer of snow and it seemed like it would continue snowing for the rest of the day.

With so many people to manage all of a sudden Domoto seemed quite busy and even Reo had ignored him almost completely for the rest of the day and when it had been late in the evening the boy had finally showed up again and freed Taiga to bring him downstairs to the toilet and he was actually allowed to eat something together with Reo in his quarter. Taiga didn’t even ask for the reason why the boy had suddenly decided to give him some break like this, not that he would remove the collar of course and that still put a thick wall between them.

In the end Taiga had ended up chained to the throne again, but Reo seemed too stressed out to actually have any conversation with him at all. Even when they had been up at his quarter they hadn’t spoken and something had stopped Taiga from trying to get more information as he had tried earlier in the van. Was it the way Reo had been all tense the rest of the day? He had had a brief talk with Domoto as they had all gathered in the castle and after he had come back his look had darkened even more and somehow this had stopped Taiga completely from trying to piss the boy off. Was it actually pity he was feeling? Not that he should with the way Reo treated him until now and just because he was going easy on him one evening and had treated his wounds before, didn’t mean that he would trust him. After all that could actually be what they were aiming for, so he remained strong and kept his defenses up.

Curled up in his jacket Taiga had fallen asleep at some time, but as he heard steps on the stairs he cracked one eye carefully open, not wanting to let the other person know that he was actually awake. He was more than surprised to find Domoto walking up the stairs and he tensed right away, after all it was in the middle of the night and except for some guards which changed shifts outside from time to time everyone else was asleep. But Domoto didn’t even spend him any attention and walked right up the next staircase to the third floor. That made Taiga feel even more uneasy out of a sudden and as he had somehow already expected Domoto entered Reo’s room. Until now Taiga had never seen their personal quarters in the other hideouts, so he didn't know what was usually going on when they weren't gathered in the main room.

Taiga remained frozen to the spot and waited, but he didn’t come out again over the next minutes and with the thick walls and heavy doors in the castle he wouldn’t be able to hear anything either. But did he want to hear anything? He didn’t even know anything about what was going on inside this troop and maybe it was better this way.

It was hard to ignore it for the rest of the night and even harder to fall asleep again, but when morning arrived and Reo stepped out of his room alone and without any harm, at least as he could see, Taiga felt kind of relieved. But he couldn’t deny that Reo’s mood had dropped even more and he didn’t talk to him the whole morning.

Taiga saw Domoto coming up the stairs with most of his men the moment Reo had brought him back up after freeing him for the usual routine. At least Taiga could call himself lucky that Domoto had returned to his own quarters at some point without spending Taiga any attention.

“Good morning, Taiga. I hope it wasn’t too uncomfortable and cold down here over night?” Domoto asked with a bright smile on which Taiga wanted to snap at him right away. How could the man be this perfectly calm all the time? “You know I can give you a room at any time. You know the conditions for a better treatment.”

“And you know my answer,” Taiga shot back at him. He was still not planning on showing any weakness towards the man and he wouldn’t bow to him just to get a warm bed for the night, that wasn’t worth it.

“Then I guess I have to finally show you what happens if you keep refusing to follow my lead,” Domoto replied with the excitement crawling back into his eyes, but then he turned towards his men which had gathered in the room.

Taiga felt more than uncomfortable in his position, chained up next to Domoto while all those people were looking at him. But not all of the stares were mocking, Taiga could perfectly divide the people which were Domoto’s most trusted members and which had been forced to join, but to his surprise the majority seemed as crazy as their leader, because they all had this weird excitement showing all over their faces. So Domoto had seriously succeeded in brainwashing people in following him on their own and in full awareness of what they were doing with their actions.

Domoto held a short speech and presented a plan which was about attacking the last two fight clubs which were around this area. So that was actually why they were staying for so long, because with two fight clubs which also seemed quite strong judging to Domoto’s words they would need some time to plan everything.

After a few minutes everyone scattered away slowly, just Reo and Domoto remained and the leader turned his attention towards Taiga again.

“So any change of mind?”

Taiga rolled his eyes on that at let out a mocking chuckle. “Who is the stubborn one of us here, I wonder?”

“You can call yourself lucky that I am so patient with you actually, I could have just killed you right away the first time you refused to listen, you know?”

Taiga gulped on that, because of course he was aware of that, but on the other hand he was sure that Domoto wouldn’t kill him that easily. He was enjoying his game way too much for that.

With a snap of his fingers Reo moved and freed Taiga from the throne and made him stand up, pushing him backwards until he hit the wall with his back.

“Turn around,” Reo ordered and Taiga looked up at him sceptic, but this time Reo needed a moment to find his teasing smile again. It had obviously gotten harder for the boy to keep up his façade. In the end Reo just turned him around on his shoulders and stripped him out of his jacket and threw it to the ground. Then he grabbed his wrists, tying them together with a rope he pulled out his pocket, before he turned him around again.

Getting his hands tied was still nothing bad, but when Reo lifted the chain from the collar over his head Taiga looked up and found the metal hook on the wall right above him and Reo put the chains over it and stepped back.

With his hands tied up, Taiga wouldn’t be able to get them down on his own and when he tried to make a step to the side the chain automatically put pressure on the collar. So he was completely stuck in his position, not able to make a step to the side or sit down.

“I guess you figured out that this is going to get a little bit uncomfortable for you,” Domoto said apologizing, even though his eyes showed that he totally enjoyed what he was doing. He stepped closer to Taiga and the boy gasped as Domoto grabbed him by the chin and lifted his head up. It had actually been the first time that he touched him since he had helped him in the fight club. “Beating you hadn’t really the taming effect I wanted it to have, so I guess I will go with this way instead. If you fall asleep you will strangle yourself so I hope you have a good stamina, because I won’t free you that soon, except of course you finally accept your place and lower your head to me.”

He released Taiga again and stepped back to Reo and gave the boy a short look before he turned towards Taiga again. “Oh and Reo is not allowed to bring you any food or water or free you from the chains. Let’s see how strong you are.”

With another death glare Taiga looked after Domoto as he walked down the stairs and then his look fell on Reo who had also looked after Domoto.

“So I guess not being allowed to help me doesn’t stop you from hurting me?” Taiga asked as Reo turned towards him again. This time the boy’s smile was almost perfect again and he chuckled on Taiga’s words and stepped closer.

“Are you enjoying it so much to be tortured by me that you actually beg for it?”

“Are you enjoying it?” Taiga asked back instead, but this time he wasn’t able to break Reo’s mask.

“Maybe? What I will enjoy is how you are going to suffer from now on. I have the feeling you still didn’t understand the extent of what Domoto is going to do to you with this step.”

“If he thinks I will give in just through getting starved and not being allowed to sleep, he mistakes big time!”

“Oh there is more to it actually,” Reo said with a lopsided smile. “Sure your body will suffer through the cold, the lag of sleep, food and water, but you will soon understand what he actually wants to gain out of it.”

“Which would be?” Taiga asked even though he knew of course that Reo wouldn’t just give him an answer, after all he enjoyed this almost as much as Domoto, at least when he was in his carefree state. At some point the boy’s behavior seemed as if he had two personalities fighting each other inside.

“He will break your mind instead of your body this time,” Reo finally replied, but left without any other explanation and Taiga took a deep breath before he got ready for a tormenting time. After all they would stay at least two or three days more and he wasn’t sure how long his body could remain strong, but his mind? It was stronger than his body, right? He didn’t see good chances for Domoto to break him from that side easily, but who knew what else Domoto could come up with.


	9. Chapter 9

 

 

“How the hell shall we know where the hideout actually was? There are a lot of unused warehouses and old buildings around here,” Watanabe complained as they had finally arrived at the outer part of the west side the next day once more after they had to give up the evening before, because they couldn’t find the hideout in the dark and Shintaro’s condition wasn’t good enough to search for so long.

“Actually, we just have to search for the building that stands out the most,” Shintaro explained, taking a look around from Ueda’s back.

“Oh right, judging to his taste he loves weird places,” Abe said with a grimace. The last hideout had given him the creeps already.

“Ehm, then how about we check out this creepy church over there?” Watanabe suddenly announced as he walked a few meters away already and looked around a corner.

As the other caught up to him they also saw the church a few hundred meters away from them.

“This is actually the most unfitting place he could have chosen, but somehow I have the feeling that this could be it,” Shintaro said with a weird feeling in his stomach. Somehow he was relieved that they hadn’t run into them here, because after all he still couldn’t fight, but on the other hand he wanted to get Taiga out of there as fast as possible and knowing how Ueda must feel about running after them without being able to catch up, he felt more than guilty for feeling relieved in the first place.

Ueda started moving first and the others followed him right away. When they stopped in front of the church the tyre tracks on the ground were the first they noticed.

“Great so they have cars. Now I guess our chances of somehow catching up to them before Tokyo got just reduced to zero,” Abe let out and looked at Ueda kind of apologizing.

“Maybe it is the safer choice like this after all. Tokyo is our place! We have a lot of people down there to help us. I guess we just have to be patient.”

They walked inside the church next and Ueda let Shintaro down for a while. Abe reminded him right away that he had to be careful while walking around and he walked next to him the whole time. Ueda and Watanabe moved up towards the podium at the end, with a heavy chair on top of it.

“Damn, this man really houses everywhere like he was some kind of king,” Watanabe said disgusted as he walked up to the chair, while Ueda’s look fell on the ground at the end of the few stairs up to the podium.

“Blood,” Ueda let out and the other two walked up to him and looked at the blood strains on the ground with a worried look. Shintaro stepped forward and reached out for something that was lying next to it on the ground and when he lifted it up he realized that it was a black ripped shirt, dried blood on it.

“What do you think?” Abe asked him, because after all Shintaro knew the best what could have happened here.

“It’s not Taiga’s original clothes, but to be honest that doesn’t really help. Domoto’s ways of tormenting people is different with each new person he tries to break.”

“Means we can’t be sure if this is actually related to Taiga or not…” Abe concluded.

“There are chain marks on the armchair,” Watanabe added as he scanned the chair and on that Ueda felt even more uneasy.

“Let’s not think about it too much. It won’t help us at all if we get unsettled now,” Ueda said, even though he wasn’t sure if he could stand to his own words.

“I guess we should keep moving then, otherwise they will reach Tokyo way faster than us,” Watanabe said as he walked back through the room towards the exit.

“Can I walk a little bit more on my own? At least until we are back at the main street?” Shintaro asked and even though Abe looked sceptic he nodded, knowing how annoying it must be to get carried around the whole time and like this Ueda would also get a break.

“Are you coming?” Watanabe asked as he was already at the door and the others nodded, but then there was the sound of someone coming running outside and Watanabe turned around, but before he could even see who it was, the person had dashed through the door and threw him to the ground.

“SHOTA,” Abe shouted out for him and started running towards the two.

“Stop or I will kill him,” the stranger shouted at him and Abe stopped right away as he saw the knife pressed against Watanabe’s throat.

Watanabe didn’t move and tried to figure out a way to get the other one off him without getting his throat slit instead. But the knife had already cut his skin slightly with the stranger’s hand shaking. When he took a closer look at it he realized that it was bandaged, as well as other parts of his body. His face was also bruised and realizing that the he was maybe the same age as him, he wondered what had made him attack them. The boy took deep breathes and it was clear that his injuries hurt a lot, but his eyes still threw daggers at all of them.

“Calm down, okay? We are not here to pick a fight,” Ueda tried to calm the boy down, but he didn’t dare to approach him.

“Are you part of them?” The boy hissed at them angrily, but they all just shared a confused look.

“Part of what?” Abe asked carefully.

“Mugen! Are you with them?”

On that question Shintaro made a step backwards, but Abe shook his head right away. “No we are no Mugen members, we are actually chasing them.”

“Chasing them? Why?”

“They burned down our club and kidnapped one of our friends,” Watanabe answered this time and finally the boy lifted the knife off his throat a little bit and Watanabe dared to take a deep breath.

“I know you can’t trust us this easily without knowing us, but it is really the truth. Would you at least let go of him?” Ueda asked and pointed at Watanabe. The boy looked still unsure about what to do, but in the end he stood up and took a few steps away from them.

Abe rushed over to Watanabe and helped him up, taking a look at the wound on his neck, but it didn’t seem too bad.

“So who are you by the way?” Ueda asked and the boy hesitated for a moment.

“I am from the fight club of this city.”

“Did they attack you?”

“Yes, yesterday. And they took three of our fighters, killed a few of our members and burned the club down.”

“They really do this shit all over Japan,” Watanabe hissed and somehow his reaction made the stranger calm down.

“And now you are searching for them?” Ueda asked and the boy nodded.

“I got knocked out yesterday, but I tried to find them since this morning, but as it seems I am already too late.”

“Same as us then,” Abe whispered disappointed.

“Do you know where they went?”

“They are on their way back to Tokyo,” Ueda answered.

“Tokyo? What do they want there?”

“Long story, but we have no time to explain the details. We have to hurry so that they won’t get there way faster than us.”

Ueda walked up to the door, followed by Shintaro and the other two stepped out the church as well, but then Watanabe turned around to the boy again.

“What are you planning now?”

“Me? I...don’t know.”

“You want revenge?”

The direct question made him look up at Watanabe with a weird look, but then he nodded. “Of course.”

Watanabe gave him a lopsided smile on that. “Then how about you join us?”

The boy looked quite confused about that offer, but the others seemed to agree with him.

“I just attacked you, why would you offer that?”

“He was a Mugen member before,” Watanabe said and pointed at Shintaro who went pale the next moment as the boy looked at him with wide eyes. “But that doesn’t make him a bad person. He was forced to follow them and he was brave enough to flee and decided for the right way. You want them gone the same way as we do, so you are welcome to join us!”

Shintaro looked at Watanabe in pure shock about his words, because he had suddenly praised him, hadn’t he? Abe on the other hand couldn’t hide a proud smile.

“And you just trust him that easily? What if he backstabs you?”

“Oh trust me he won’t! He got literally backstabbed by his own people.”

Again Watanabe’s words made Shintaro’s look turn even more disbelieving, but this time even Ueda smiled before he turned towards Shintaro and told him to get on his back so that they could keep moving.

“Then I would like to join you, if it is really okay for you?” The boy voiced out and Watanabe looked at the others and they all nodded.

“I guess then it is decided. There is just one more thing,” Watanabe continued. “What’s your name?”

The boy relaxed on the easy question and walked up to them with a smile. “Miyadate.”

“Then welcome to your new group Miyadate,” Watanabe said and clapped him on the shoulder before they kept moving.

***

The day passed without Taiga feeling too bad, even though the lag of water made him feel dizzy already. The cold was also getting to him, especially without his jacket. Even at daytime and inside the castle they had minus degrees and he couldn’t stop his body from shaking.

In the evening they had another meeting and Taiga had to try hard to keep calm in front of everyone, because the way they all seemed to enjoy the way Domoto treated him made him more than angry.

In the evening Domoto asked him once more if he was finally ready to bow to him, but Taiga had again shot him a mocking answer and the leader had just left.

The following day was the same, they had a meeting in the morning and left for their attack for the first fight club, but Taiga had finally realized the night before what else was going to make him suffer. But he refused to show anything while they were having their meeting, but then Reo walked up to him as they all got ready to leave and without a warning he pressed his hand against Taiga’s lower stomach and the boy tensed right away, trying hard not to show his discomfort too much.

“I guess you finally understood what else he is up to. You might be able to fight against your dizziness and survive a few days without water, but there are some natural things you just can’t control.”

Taiga gritted his teeth, but didn’t say anything and Reo just chuckled as he stepped back. “Good luck with holding back. Let’s see how long it will take.”

As Reo also went down the stairs Taiga finally dared to let out a sigh and he shifted his position slightly to find the best way to take away the pressure from his stomach, because if he wanted to admit it or not, now that Reo wasn’t freeing him anymore, he needed to use the toilet more than ever before and as Reo had said, this was something he couldn’t control and Taiga cursed in silence on Domoto’s plan. So instead of just beating him up, he was planning on hurting his pride.

With everyone gathering in this room all the time it didn’t even matter when he would give in, because they would see it one way or the other, but Taiga wasn’t ready to make it that easy for them. He could at least try to stay strong as long as possible, even though Domoto’s win was just a matter of time.

But that time still hadn’t come when they returned late in the evening. It was of course a huge chaos when they arrived and the typical shouting was hurt, but they seemed to handle their new prisoners downstairs and for a while no one came upstairs.

It was actually Domoto who made his way upstairs first and he approached Taiga with a really impressed expression. “Mhhh, you are really fascinating. You have a really impressive level of endurance, but this time you won’t be able to win against me, no matter how hard you try.”

Again Domoto came closer than usual and Taiga flinched as he brushed with his fingers over his cheek, but he couldn’t waste his energy on picking a fight with him now, so he remained silent and luckily Domoto left without taking any other actions which could disturb Taiga’s concentration.

No one else showed up in front of him for the evening and suddenly his legs gave in for a second, giving a harsh pull to the chains and he coughed as he rested with his back against the wall and tried desperately to keep his legs straight. By now he wasn’t just shaking from the cold anymore, but through his body’s scream to finally be allowed to find release.

Knowing that they would definitely have another meeting here in a few hours Taiga felt how he was slowly giving up. Maybe it would be better to actually just let them see the outcome of his weakness instead of crumbling right in front of everyone, because that would satisfy Domoto even more.

Breathing in, breathing out….repeat. That was all Taiga could think of for now. Every distraction would be too much. His ears were unable to even hear anything around him anymore, his blood rushing through his body and his fast heartbeat was all they could recognize for now.

“Don’t give in, don’t break…” His words came out in a shuddering sound and a sob escaped Taiga without him being able to suppress it. No he still wasn’t ready to give up, but his body was fighting violently against his mind and it was more than hard to accept that no matter how strong he was, he couldn’t win this time. He felt how his body turned heavy and even though he could feel the pain around his neck as the chain yanked on the collar he couldn’t move his legs up again. His body was about to faint and even though his mind was screaming at him to move, his body didn’t react.

He didn’t even had time to open his eyes as his ears finally seemed to start working again and heard the sound of something getting lifted up in front of him. Like a thousand needles piercing through his skin the cold water, which was emptied over his head, hit him and even though his body demanded him to take a deep breath he couldn’t and a short pained cough was all that escaped his lips. The shock was so big that he needed a moment to realize that his body had finally given up on him at the same time and he left his eyes closed for another moment, too afraid that he would actually start crying if he opened them now.

“Guess like this you won’t fall asleep at least. We don’t want you to strangle yourself, right?”

The fact that it was Reo’s voice and not Domoto’s he heard made him finally open his eyes and he was more than relieved to find only Reo in front of him, with an empty bucket in his hand. Hesitantly he looked down his own clothes, but he was soaked to the core, the water from the bucket Reo had emptied over him forming a paddle around him.

“You…” Taiga started, but he was shaking so bitterly that he couldn’t even keep speaking. Instead he looked up at Reo in disbelieve, but the boy wore his typical teasing smile.

“I think that Domoto wouldn’t like it if he found you dead in the morning. I guess he thought you would give in earlier. But like this you will stay awake at least until the morning.”

With that Reo walked away again, vanishing in his room as if nothing had happened. But Taiga could do nothing except for staring after him. The cold water had turned his body into a shaking mess and Reo should actually be worried now that Taiga could die because he would freeze to death until morning, but somehow the pain the cold was giving him now was nothing compared to what he would have had to go through if Reo hadn’t emptied that bucket over him.

Taiga looked down once more, but there was actually no sign that he had given in. The water was the perfect cover and being soaked from head to toe no one could actually tell the difference.

Taiga leant back against the wall with a disbelieving smile appearing on his shaking lips and he shook his head. “Asshole…” He whispered before he concentrated back on not falling asleep, because for now that was his only worry and somehow he couldn’t wait to see Domoto’s disappointed look in the morning.

***

“Is it really okay if we use your money? With five people this is going to be quite expensive,” Abe said kind of apologizing, but Miyadate shook his head once more.

“Take it as an apology for my rushed attack yesterday,” Miyadate answered and looked at Watanabe with a slight bow, but the latter hit him against the shoulder with a smile.

“No worries, trust me I would have reacted the same if I had found their hideout right after they attacked our club.”

Miyadate had already paid for their quarters the last night, after they had kept walking the rest of the day. Like this they had lost a lot of time again so Miyadate offered to pay for a train ticket and even though everyone felt bad about it, they didn’t want to refuse his offer. It was their best chance to catch up to Mugen.

With Miyadate’s remaining money they would be able to go directly to Tokyo in the evening already.

“The next station is just about two hours from here, so if we keep moving we can still get a train which arrives in Tokyo tomorrow morning,” Abe explained as he took a look at a small pocket watch he carried around with him.

“But we should take at least one more break,” Ueda started and turned his head to be able to look at Shintaro who was resting on his back. “You are still fine up there?”

“Mh? All good…” The sound of his voice was already enough to make them all stop and Abe walked up him, but Shintaro tried to hide his face on Ueda’s back.

“Shintaro, cut the crap out, would you let me check your condition?” Abe scolded him.

“Everything is fine, let’s just keep moving! I can rest when we are on the train.”

Abe tried to reach out for him, but Shintaro turned away and Abe almost pulled him sideward from Ueda’s back to take a closer look at him.

“I said it’s fine!”

“And I say I will decide that myself!”

“Okay you two squabblers, cut it out,” Ueda finally complained and bended his knees a little bit to put Shintaro to the ground, but the moment he was down Abe had to grab him by the sleeve as it seemed that he would lose balance. Out of reflex Watanabe and Miyadate also reached out for him while Abe eyed him suspicious. He put his hands towards his neck, feeling his heart rate before he moved one hand up to his forehead and rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“You are such a stubborn idiot! You can’t tell me that you didn’t realize your bad condition,” Abe scolded him, but Shintaro looked away guilty.

“I didn’t want to slow us down, as I said I can rest in the train,” Shintaro replied and wanted to make a step forward, but he stumbled right away and Watanabe caught him before he could fall. What worried them though was the pained sound Shintaro had let out at the same time and Abe moved to lift his shirt up on the back carefully and Miyadate held it up for him while he carefully took a look under the bandages.

“Shit…”

“What?” Ueda asked alarmed right away and moved next to him. He didn’t need to have Abe’s experience to understand his reaction as he looked at the wound. It got infected after all and seemed quite painful.

“Idiot, why didn’t you say something?” Ueda scolded him now as well.

“As I said, I didn’t want to slow us down,” Shintaro let out in a weak voice while Miyadate had to help Watanabe to hold him up, because his legs had almost completely given up on him by now.

“Okay, get him on my back again, we will bring him to a place where he can rest and try to get some medicine together.”

“No, don’t! Then leave me behind! You will lose a lot of time again and also lose your chance to take the train,” Shintaro complained, but Ueda shot him an angry glare on that.

“We made it until here, so we will somehow make it back to Tokyo on another way as well! Then we will just take the train as far as we can go, it’s still better than nothing and now stop complaining.”

All of them had their reasons to be impatient and restless, but that didn’t mean that they would just leave him behind. They had decided to accept him in their middle and they wouldn’t just back out now just because it got a little bit more complicated again. Even Miyadate didn’t complain even though he seemed as suspicious as Watanabe in the beginning about Shintaro. He wanted revenge after all, but it was clear that he was still calm enough to realize that he wouldn’t get far on his own and getting killed by the try to run inside the Mugen hideout was definitely not what he was planning.

“Guess we are going to find a place to stay for at least another day,” Abe said a little bit disappointed as they kept walking. Shintaro was almost unconscious when they kept moving, which was good, because like this he couldn’t complain anymore.

“Don’t worry, if they arrive in Tokyo before us, I know a few guys who will keep them busy until we come,” Ueda said with a smile before they all kept moving towards the next city, hoping they could find some quarters for the night and didn’t have to stay longer than one or two days.


	10. Chapter 10

 

His look was as calm as usual, but something was different and Taiga had to try hard not to form a triumphing smile. Domoto had come upstairs quite early in the morning and now he was looking at Taiga curiously and seemed to try to find an explanation for what had happened.

Taiga was still shivering like hell, his teeth chattering and his breaths coming out short and painful, but it was still worth it, seeing how confused Domoto seemed from one moment to the other.

“That is...not what I had expected to see,” he voiced out in a calm voice as he stepped closer. He moved his hand up to Taiga’s shirt and stroke over it carefully as if he still couldn’t understand how it could be that he was completely soaked in water. “So you might want to tell me who did this?”

Taiga chuckled mockingly on that and shook his head. He didn’t even bother with an answer.

“Still the same, I see. I guess I still went too easy on you.”

Domoto suddenly stepped even closer than usual once again and moved the back of his hand over Taiga’s cheek and it seemed like he wanted to lift his other hand as well, but he held back and stepped back, his look suddenly kind of troubled. Was he running out of patience? Even if, what stopped him from going all out on Taiga? If he didn’t break he had definitely way more painful methods to “tame” him as he said, but somehow Domoto’s plans seemed different than from the way he handled his fighters. There was something that made him hesitate, as if he feared that one wrong move would destroy his efforts.

Suddenly he turned away with one of his perfect smiles and walked towards the staircase.

“Reo,” he shouted upstairs and after a few moments the boy opened the door and as he saw Domoto his look fell on Taiga for a moment before he walked down to the leader.

“Good morning,” Domoto greeted him and Reo bowed lightly before Domoto walked up to Taiga again followed by the boy.

“So Taiga doesn’t seem to remember who tried to turn him into a living ice cube, maybe you have any idea?”

Reo looked from Domoto to Taiga and back before he hesitantly shook his head.

“I see…” Domoto said as he turned towards Reo and let out a long sigh and for a moment silence followed. None of them moved and Taiga’s eyes were fixed on Reo, but then he flinched as Domoto lifted his hand without any kind of warning and gave Reo a harsh slap.

Reo didn’t even seem surprised and his only reaction was closing his eyes for a moment before he faced the leader again. Domoto reached out for his cheeks with both hands and stroke over them carefully as if he wanted to apologize for his actions, but his look told something completely different.

“How often do I have to tell you that I don’t like it when you lie to me?” Domoto asked, but Reo still didn’t answer. Domoto removed his hands and gave the boy another smile, this time the same excitement shining in his eyes which he was normally directing towards Taiga. “You know the punishment.”

On his words Reo’s look finally changed and he kept looking at the leader as if he hoped he would say that it was a joke, but it didn’t seem to happen. “What are you waiting for?”

Domoto kept his smile while Reo’s look darkened. Reluctantly the boy bowed towards him and moved upstairs once more. Taiga looked after him with a worried look while Domoto waited at the staircase for him. As Reo stepped out of his room he walked down the stairs with an expression of someone who was walking towards a scaffold and it made Taiga’s stomach twist. He had never seen that expression on the boy’s face and knowing that even though it had been Reo’s own decision to go against Domoto’s orders, he felt somehow guilty.

Domoto held out his hand as Reo stepped next to him and that was when Taiga realized what Reo had brought from his room and he held his breath as Reo handed him the whip.

Reo looked away for a moment and his eyes met Taiga’s and what he saw made him shiver, but there was nothing he could do. Domoto pushed Reo towards the stairs and they vanished downstairs.

Taiga needed some time to catch up with the situation, because he hadn’t thought of such an outcome. Reo hadn’t actually been forbidden to interfere and after all he had really made sure that Taiga wouldn’t strangle himself over night. What was also still not clear was if Reo had really tried to help him or not. Because why would he? The boy was still a riddle to Taiga, but the look he had just seen on his face had made something crumble inside Taiga, the wall in between Reo and him! Reo’s defenses had broken down for a few seconds and Taiga had been able to see all the hurt in his eyes, the struggle and the pain he seemed to endure all the time. But somehow he feared that it was too late now to get closer to the boy. Domoto seemed on his best way to lose his calm completely.

***

Domoto came back for a meeting with his men later, but Reo wasn’t with him this time and it made Taiga feel even worse. They planned their attack of the second fight club, but they still needed time to get everything ready, since they also had to rest after their attack the day before.

After everyone had scattered away again, Domoto remained alone and to his surprise he freed him from the wall without another word. Taiga had to watch out not to lose balance and he leant back on the wall, eyeing Domoto skeptical as the later moved closer to untie his hands and took the chain off the collar, but the collar itself remained around his neck.

As if looking at a piece of art he scanned Taiga with an approving nod before he moved away for a moment just to come back with a glass bottle of water and Taiga looked at it like a starved animal spying on its prey.

“You want it or are you still too proud to at least take this small favor?”

Favor? Yes to him it seemed like it, to Taiga it was one step closer to the edge. But he would be a fool to deny the water now, because if he died he would lose this battle without even getting the chance to fight.

Domoto held the bottle out to him and Taiga took it with shaking hands. He brought it to his lips carefully, but as much as he tried to drink slow the moment the cold water filled his mouth he felt like he had been revived from a state of apparent death. But after a few more hasty gulps he chocked and started coughing. Before he could let the half empty bottle drop Domoto took it out of his hands.

“Shall we?” With an inviting smile Domoto stretched his hand out towards him, but of course Taiga remained suspicious.

“Shall we what?”

“You might want to change into dry clothes before you freeze to death,” Domoto said and pointed towards Reo’s room. Again Taiga knew that he should refuse, that he should endure the cold, but he was shaking all over, his body still ice cold, his thirst still hurting his throat and his mind ready to beg for mercy and before he would actually let out those unnecessary words of defeat why not just taking his offers of a break without admitting his defeat?

He didn’t take his hand, but walked a few steps away from him, following him up the stairs towards Reo’s room, even though it was really hard for him to keep his balance.

Finally in the room Domoto took some of Reo’s clothes and handed them to Taiga. The boy was still skeptical of course, especially because he didn’t like it to be alone in a room with Domoto, but there was no way he would refuse new clothes at this point.

He took them from Domoto, who responded with a satisfied smile before he put the water bottle down and sat down on Reo’s bed, which actually made Taiga hesitate.

“Go ahead,” Domoto said and waved his hand and Taiga bit his cheek from the inside, biting back another snarky comment. Of course he wouldn’t leave the room, but at this point Taiga didn’t even care anymore. He turned around while changing his clothes, so that he at least didn’t have to see Domoto’s mocking smile. With dry clothes he felt a lot better again, but he knew already that he shouldn’t relax.

“So any change of mind by now?” Domoto asked and Taiga had to collect all his patience to not snap at him. For a moment he thought if it was possible for him to stand a chance against Domoto if he attacked him now, after all they were alone. But on the other hand he was weakened so badly by now that he wasn’t sure if he could even throw a normal punch anymore. Also the fact that Domoto had one of the biggest underworld troops under his command made him doubt that he would be easily tricked. So in the end he gave up on that idea and crossed his arms in front of his chest as he faced Domoto again.

“What the hell do you want from me?” Taiga asked directly this time, because he didn’t doubt that Domoto was normally running out of patience more easily with the fighters he tried to get under his command. He had heard from Shintaro how easily he would normally decide to kill someone if they didn’t obey and how extreme his torture could get. But something was different in his case and slowly he realized that this didn’t seem to be the first time Domoto tried to make someone obey that desperately. Reo was the best example for that. It was obvious that the boy wasn’t weak and there was no way he had been one of his loyal followers from the beginning. But seeing that even Reo had given in at some point and had even turned in Domoto’s personal killing machine, made Taiga slowly lose hope that he could keep up his fight for much longer.

“I told you often enough,” Domoto replied calm as he got up from the bed and stopped right in front of Taiga. “I can offer you a way better treatment if you would finally stop being so childish.”

“Childish?” Getting called stubborn and proud from Reo had been one thing, because after all he was right, but childish? “Says the one who forced me to pee my pants.”

Voicing it out loud made his stomach turn on the spot, but feeling ashamed would just be another weakness in front of Domoto.

“And again you went through it as if it wouldn't hurt you at all. I wonder which method I should use next, there has to be a weakness behind those beautiful eyes.”

Again Domoto stepped closer than Taiga wanted and when he lifted his hand, Taiga automatically stepped back, but his back hit the wall and he realized that he was standing in the corner, completely trapped. He tried to stay calm and he thought that he actually did a good job in hiding his discomfort, but suddenly Domoto’s look changed into a curious expression and he dared to step even closer and suddenly trapped Taiga’s face in his hands.

As Domoto took another step forward so that their bodies were already touching at some parts Taiga could feel how panic rose inside of him.

It was more than obvious by now what Domoto tried and Taiga wasn't even surprised, because after all he had seen him vanishing in Reo’s room once already and they definitely didn't just have a talk at that time. It had also definitely not been the first time.

The only reason why Domoto actually dared to go this far out of a sudden was because he had definitely sensed Taiga's fear. At least this was the only logical explanation for Taiga, because he had been so patient and cautious the whole time that he doubted he would just lose his own game out of a sudden. He had a plan and Taiga wasn't sure how he should react to not play right into his hands.

Unfortunately he didn't have enough time at all to think about a proper reaction, because suddenly Domoto’s grip got tighter and with a last satisfied smile and the excited shine in his eyes stronger than ever before he forced Taiga's head up and pushed him with his body against the wall, so that he couldn't struggle. The kiss itself was something he could still somehow handle, but Domoto’s knee was already trying to find its way up the inside of his tight and when he also licked with his tongue over his lips, Taiga shut his eyes forcefully. Don't panic! This time it was definitely not about giving in, but about not breaking under his weakness. Everything was suddenly too much for him. The slightest movement of Domoto’s hands, his leg moving upwards and his body forcing him through his weight to stay still. And then the first crack appeared in Taiga's defense as forgotten images showed up in his head and he could hear his own screams. Screams he had let out when he had barely been a teenager. All his defenses suddenly crumbled and he couldn't stop his body from reacting out of panic, destroying all his efforts to stay strong and act logical over the last week.

Without knowing what else to do he bit Domoto on the lip, because he was too weak to push him away and the force he used made Domoto hiss and pull away. But that couldn't calm Taiga down. He couldn't even see clear anymore, one image after the other was haunting him in his mind and he slid to the ground with his hands forcefully pulling on his own hair. He could feel how he was about to start hyperventilating, but even if he told himself to calm down, his body wouldn't listen as it started shaking violently. He hid his face on his knees while trying to at least keep his breathing pace slow enough to not faint.

“Don't break, don't give in! Don't break, don't give in…” like a mantra he repeated the words over and over again, whispering them like those were the last thoughts which could keep him sane. He refused to start crying and took a few more deep breathes, but when Domoto suddenly crouched down in front of him he tensed again. The older one reached out for him and Taiga was ready to fight with the last strength he could somehow find in his body, but it came different than he thought, as Domoto pulled him into a hug and stroke carefully over his hair.

“It's okay. I'm sorry.”

The words needed a felt eternity to make sense to Taiga and he froze in his arms for a moment. Had he really just lost his patience all of a sudden and regretted it now? But even if, he would have made this move sooner or later anyways, so Taiga shouldn't feel relieved, but he did and it scared him.

Domoto helped him back up and made him sit on the bed before he crouched down in front of him once more. Taiga almost wanted to laugh at the situation, because after all Domoto wanted him to bow the whole time and now he was the one sitting on his knees in front of him.

“Take a rest, okay? Reo won't use this room for the next days and as an apology I'll allow you to use it.”

Taiga blinked at him in complete confusion. The latter's mask was perfect. He wouldn't be able to read between the lines for now, not in his current condition at least. He wanted to yell at him, push him away, if possible even punch him, but he couldn’t. His body felt numb and even though he was sure that he could build up his defenses once more, he would need some time. Domoto had finally succeeded in attacking him off guard and Taiga knew that this was a huge disadvantage for him.

When Domoto tried to take one of his hands into his Taiga pulled back faster than he wanted and he cursed in silence for still being so panicked. Domoto just kept smiling, but stood up instead.

“Take a good rest, you will need it,” Domoto said and walked towards the door, turning towards Taiga with a new look on his face before he left him alone.

This look should tell Taiga that whatever was going to happen from now was his own fault. He had finally lost one battle. But as Reo had said, a lost battle was no lost war. The question was if the next battle was something he could still win, because he had had  his troubles until now already, how was he supposed to get his defenses up again, especially now that it seemed like Reo wouldn’t be able to meet him that often anymore, if at all. Something told Taiga that Reo’s bucket move had bigger consequences than the boy had expected and feeling like shit himself right now he couldn’t but worry for him as well.

Without being able to even refuse the rest he was offered he crawled under the thick covers. Like this his body could at least get a small rest, even though he knew that it wouldn’t be for long.

***

Watanabe left Shintaro to Ueda and Abe as he walked out of the room and took a look around the place. They had found a cheap ryokan to stay at for the night and now that it was late in the evening, they had finally succeeded in treating Shintaro’s wound as good as possible. Watanabe and Miyadate had volunteered to get some medicine and even though Shintaro still had a high fever he seemed to feel a little bit better already.

Again they had been forced to stop, but this time he couldn’t find any reason to complain. Of course he couldn’t deny that if he was alone with Shintaro he would maybe just leave him behind. But he was of course also aware that their chances of finding Mugen in Tokyo were better with Shintaro being with them. And even though he didn’t want to accept it, the boy’s presents didn’t annoy him as much as in the beginning anymore.

He walked to the back of the ryokan where a low balcony was located in front of a traditional Japanese garden. When he turned around the corner and found Miyadate sitting on the balcony, already dressed in one of the yukatas they had prepared for them, he didn’t even hesitate to walk over to the other one. It was already dark outside and it would definitely get too cold if they sat in the open for too long, but for a short moment it wouldn’t do them any harm and Miyadate also seemed to enjoy the fresh night breeze.

“Hey there, lifesaver.”

“Don’t call me that,” Miyadate complained right away as Watanabe dropped next to him. They had thanked him over and over again for paying for the medicine and the place to stay and somehow Watanabe had found a liking in teasing the boy with it. “By the way, is your wound okay?”

Miyadate looked towards Watanabe’s neck where a clean bandage was now hiding the cut from the knife. The boy’s guilty look made Watanabe chuckle and he hit him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much about it. Ryohei just treated it and he said it will be fine in a few days.”

“But I still feel bad about it. I acted without thinking and out of rage, I should have known better.”

“Trust me, no one can act logical anymore after an encounter with Mugen,” Watanabe replied in a serious tone and he clenched his fists.

“They took away a friend of yours, right?” Miyadate asked with the same dark expression on his face now.

“Attacking us and burning down the club was something I could have somehow gotten over, but killing our fighters and taking our friend away made me unable to think clear for weeks. Without Ryohei by my side I would have gone berserk at some point. I can totally relate to what you are feeling at the moment.”

Miyadate nodded slowly and his look got softer again. It was a long time ago that Watanabe was actually able to talk to someone that openly and without thinking about every word he chose two times before actually bringing it out. Maybe it was because they shared almost the same fate and were both driven by the wish of revenge that it was so easy for them to communicate.

“And still it is different, because they took away a really precious person from your side. You can call it rage as much as you like, but what you are feeling the most is sorrow, I can see it in your eyes.”

Silence followed on Miyadate’s words for a moment while Watanabe looked at him in a complete loss. So now it wasn’t just that it was easy to talk to him, but he could also understand him as well as Saku and Abe, maybe even better.

“Sorry, I am talking too much, I should just shut up.”

“And here everyone complains all the time that I am the one talking too much,” Watanabe replied and with that the atmosphere brightened up a little bit again. “But anyways, thank you, really! Without you we would take way longer back to Tokyo and you could have left us behind at any time and still you decided to help us.”

“You didn’t leave Shintaro behind either.”

“Yes but trust me I was really close to do so,” Watanabe admitted and Miyadate cracked a bitter smile.

“I know the feeling, but with the remaining members of my fight club being either in the condition to take on this fight or being too afraid to take revenge, I had to take this travel on alone. So meeting you was maybe fate. You two are the same, right? They didn’t take my best friend with them, but our fight clubs are like our family, right? So I guess we share the same wish of revenge.”

Watanabe nodded and with his thoughts drifting off to the day when they attacked the club he tensed again, but the next moment Miyadate patted his hand.

“Getting restless is normal, but we shouldn’t lose our focus. Let’s take those days as a rest for ourselves as well,” Miyadate calmed him down and again Watanabe found himself staring at the other one. He would have liked to extend this conversation, but it got cold outside and with just the thin yukata Miyadate would catch a cold if they remained outside for too long and as the latter had said they should rest. They would definitely find some time to talk more over the next days.


	11. Chapter 11

He was sure that it was a nightmare, an extremely cruel one, but somehow he wouldn’t wake up and if he wanted to or not he needed to realize that it was reality. For a few hours Taiga had been able to rest and he had been so deep asleep that he hadn’t realized that someone had entered the room. The moment he woke up it was already too late. Before he could even look up someone blindfolded him and as he tried to struggle he realized that he had two opponents as someone else grabbed his wrists and tied them together on his back.

“Who are you? Let go!” Taiga tried hard not to panic right from the start. After all Domoto could be the one who had come up with it or maybe not, and both possibilities scared him. Somehow he was sure that it was neither Reo nor Domoto who had just entered, not that it would make him relax. The other two didn’t reply to his question, instead one let out a mischievous chuckle which gave Taiga the creeps. Should he try to get away from them or wait what would happen next? Again panic was making it hard for him to think clear and for now he tried to shift back on the bed and sit up, but that movement seemed to have been the wrong one, because suddenly one of his attackers pulled him down again. He grabbed him by the hips and sat down between his legs which made Taiga lose the rest of his calm he had tried to preserve until now. He tried to turn away, but the other one’s hands were suddenly on his shirt and Taiga froze as he pulled it up without any hesitation. Then another pair of hands landed on his pants and Taiga's logic and calmness jumped off the nearest cliff.

“NO, LET GO!” Taiga kicked the one between his legs away blindly and seemed to have hit quite good and when the other one next to him tried to push him down he bit him into the hand so that the latter let out an outraged curse and yanked himself free the moment the other one jumped back at Taiga and this time he sat on his legs reaching out for his pants again while the other one got a grip again as well and grabbed the metal collar and pushed Taiga down on it with so much force that he chocked.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!” Taiga roared again, but this time his voice was about to crack. He had barely had a few hours to regain the control of his emotions again and recover from Domoto’s sudden move that he had not the slightest bit of confidence left. Suddenly he felt like a child again, trapped and unable to defend himself. He was still struggling, but he felt like his mind had separated from his body and while his body turned slowly numb, his mind turned almost blank. The one who held his upper body down had moved his hands under his shirt while the other one had succeeded in pulling down his pants and now his hands were on his underwear. This time no clear words came out as Taiga screamed at them to stop and his voice echoed in his ears as if it came from far away, from someone who couldn’t be him, because it sounded too desperate and too scared. He had become so strong and so confident and here he ended up the victim of his own past again. Between his tries to somehow get his body to move and twist away and his desperate screams which none of them tried to muffle, he almost didn’t realize when the hands on him were suddenly gone.

It took him a felt eternity to realize that they had stood up and left the room without another word, as if nothing had happened. The sound of the door closing made Taiga finally take care of his breathing pace and he tried to take some deep breathes before he could catch up with the situation.

They had left him blindfolded and with his hands on the back, but somehow Taiga doubted that they would come back. They had come to mock him and it had been definitely Domoto’s idea, Taiga was sure of it! The look the man had given him earlier had shown a wild kind of excitement and this was how his next stage of taming him looked like as it seemed. The fact that they didn’t even try to muffle his screams just confirmed his thoughts, because somehow he was sure that Domoto had been close by, listening to everything that had happened.

Finally back in control of his body movements Taiga tried to somehow bend back enough to get a grip on his pants which were still tangled somewhere around his knees to pull them back up. He wouldn’t be able to close them with his hands on the back, but he could at least try to reduce the damage.

He was shaking all over and his breathing pace was still not back to normal, but he still refused to break down completely. It could still come worse and he had to somehow build up his defenses again before they would take this sick game to the next level and not knowing their next step was making it hard to stay calm.

“A 5 class fighter in your mind.” This time Taiga said it more than ironic, letting out something between a chuckle and a sob. “You would be so disappointed in me if you saw me now.”

Letting despair take over him for a while Taiga curled up on the sheets and tried to rest as much as possible again, before they could throw him into hell once more. In a few days they would be in Tokyo and he was sure that Ueda and the others were on their way there as well, the question was just what would be left of him at their reunion.

***

“How is he?” Watanabe asked as he walked straight into Shintaro’s room the next morning, now dressed in a Yukata the same way as Miyadate the evening before. He found Abe and Ueda there already or more like still there. Wearing still their normal clothes it didn’t seem like they had slept just a few hours on the spare bed in the room, taking shifts to watch after Shintaro and suddenly Watanabe felt a little bit guilty for going to bed that carefree after Miyadate and his conversation. Abe looked up at him and shook his head.

“I would love to tell you that he is better, but his fever is still too high to actually carry him around. If we are lucky we can continue by tomorrow, but not earlier.”

Of course Watanabe wasn’t pleased to hear that and if Shintaro was actually awake he would have definitely told them to move on without him.

“Hey, how is he?” Miyadate asked as he joined them and brought a tabled with breakfast for all of them, to everyone’s surprise. It wasn’t something special, but it was definitely better than what they had to eat over the last weeks. Miyadate was also still dressed in his yukata, but this time Watanabe caught himself staring at the other one longer than necessary.

“Didn’t we tell you to not spend your money on us?” Ueda asked scolding as the boy put the tablet down and handed the obviously fresh baked bread rolls out to everyone. Miyadate just smiled apologizing even as Watanabe hit him on the head as he handed him his share.

“It’s my money, right? So I decide how I want to use it,” Miyadate answered teasing.

“But he is right, you helped us so much already and we can’t even pay you back in any way,” Abe said in a low voice, sitting next to Shintaro on the bed with a troubled expression. They have gotten restless over the last days and being stuck at one place again didn’t make it any easier.

“Why don’t we split up?”

The question came from Abe to anyone’s surprise and a heavy silence followed for a while.

“And how are we supposed to decide who is staying and who is going?” Watanabe asked, leaning back on the wall next to the door. He shoved his food into his mouth as if he tried to prevent himself from adding something else.

“Isn’t that really easy? Ueda wants to get Taiga back, Miyadate wants his revenge and because I can’t fight, you are enough to bring back Saku.”

Watanabe’s look darkened right away and Ueda and Miyadate exchanged a short look, putting the food to the side for now, because of the tense atmosphere. Abe didn’t even seem to notice that his friend had gotten really pissed in the matter of seconds.

“After all the shit we went through you think I would leave you behind?” Watanabe asked and even though his words came out as an accusation, he obviously fought with himself to stay calm.

“I am more useful here with Shintaro’s treatment than in a battle.”

“Oh and how are you going to carry him around? Or to pay for food or a shelter? This conversation ends right here!”

“Don’t be stupid Shota, we both know that you would like to dash out here right now to get Saku back, so why are you trying to ignore your best chance?”

“Because I won’t leave another friend behind to rescue another and you can’t tell me that you don’t want to get him back as much as me, maybe even more,” Watanabe yelled at him and finally took a few steps towards him, but Ueda stepped next to the bed so that he could stop him in case he had to.

Shintaro was still sleeping and it made clear how bad he felt if he didn’t even woke up through all the noise. Abe looked at the younger one with a kind of apologizing look before he faced Watanabe again.

“That might be true, but if I come with you, then you have to protect me while trying to get Saku out, that is ridiculous. I actually made my mind up yesterday evening already. I am going to stay behind with Shintaro and we will follow to Tokyo as soon as he feels better.”

“I can stay with you if you want?” Miyadate offered before Watanabe could freak at his friend, but his words seemed to make him even angrier as he looked from one to the other.

“What’s wrong with you all? We all came until here together, so we can just keep going!”

“It is not even the fact that I am staying behind, but that I am staying for his sake that makes you angry, right?”

“Ryohei, could you stop talking nonsense? As I said we are all leaving together.”

“You are not deciding that.”

“I JUST DID! I am not leaving you behind with a former Mugen member,” Watanabe finally freaked, but Miyadate held him back on the shoulders as he obviously wanted to grab his friend by the collar. Shintaro let out a groan, but didn’t open his eyes and Ueda looked worried from him to Abe who looked at the boy instead of spending Watanabe attention.

“I should get some more medicine ready for him and he needs a longer rest,” Abe explained towards Ueda.

“You are not seriously ignoring me, are you?” Watanabe growled at him, but Abe just walked over to a table in the corner to get some medicine out. “RYOHEI, I AM TALKING TO YOU!”

“BUT I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU UNTIL YOU START LISTENING TO ME! AND NOW OUT!”

It took all of them by surprise as Abe freaked at them, but Miyadate moved first, pulling Watanabe with him on his wrist, even though the boy tried to make him let go.

“This conversation is not over! Let go!”

“Keep it for later, okay?” Miyadate tried to calm him down and luckily he succeeded in somehow pulling him out the room and Ueda shut the door from the inside, so that Watanabe couldn’t dash back in.

“Miyadate, let go!” Watanabe scolded him again, but the other one kept pulling him down the corridor until they entered his room and he pulled him inside before he released his wrist. He leant with his back against the door with crossed arms and Watanabe turned and faced him with the same attitude.

“Out of my way.”

“Come on, you know yourself that your rage is speaking at the moment. If I let you out this door now, you will yell stuff that your friend which you don’t even mean and feel guilty about it later.”

“Oh so you think you know me that good already?” Watanabe shot back and took a threatening step towards him, but Miyadate didn’t move.

“Let’s say I am good in reading people and to be honest I think you are the same, just not when you are angry and you are more than angry right now, but you are lying to yourself about the reason.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You said you don’t want to leave him behind with a former Mugen member, but it is not because you don’t trust Shintaro, but because you are so damn afraid of losing another friend, because you think it was your fault that they took Saku.”

Watanabe’s eyes grew wide first, then his expression turned angry again, but he seemed to have lost the will to dash out the room for now.

“Whatever theory you have I don’t care. I won’t let us split up!” He wanted to sound confident, but the defeat in his voice made the truth of Miyadate’s words even more obvious. This time he tried to push Miyadate out of his way to get out, not to get back to fight with Abe. He needed some space or at least this is what he tried to convince himself of, but Miyadate pushed him back as he tried to open the door.

“Leave me alone, would you?”

“No actually I won’t, because running away like this and bottling up all the anger inside is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”

“Oh so what shall I do instead? Run around and beat up random people, because I can’t get a grip on the real enemy?”

“You fail in that as well as you may have noticed, otherwise you wouldn’t have accepted Shintaro by now and don’t even try to convince me that you still don’t trust him, you do!” Miyadate had seen that Watanabe wanted to complain, but he had enough of his excuses.

“Great so the conclusion is that I can’t run around and beat up people, but I am also not allowed to keep everything locked up. You are making zero sense which you have might notice. And now leave me alone!” Again Watanabe tried to get out and he suddenly felt how he was about to lose his patience towards the other one, but after their conversation the evening before it was a different kind of anger than he would direct against someone he really wanted to pick a fight with.

But Miyadate seemed also kind of frustrated and annoyed by his behavior and this time he pushed him back into the room with even more force as Watanabe tried to get to the door.

“Stop this shit already,” Watanabe roared at him and grabbed the other one by the shoulders to make him step out of the way, but the younger one grabbed his sleeves in response and they started struggling.

“As soon as you stop behaving this ignorant to yourself, I will leave you alone.”

“Oh I am so sorry that I don’t match your standards of how a person should behave and now GET OUT OF MY WAY!”

This time Watanabe moved towards the other direction and tried to pull Miyadate away from the door as he stepped back, but the other one had seen his move coming and moved faster. Before Watanabe could react he had thrown him to the ground which was luckily covered with tatami, so that the impact wasn’t exactly painful.  

Their struggle continued on the ground, but none of them actually tried to punch the other one, but soon Watanabe got the upper hand and turned them around, pinning Miyadate to the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?” He hissed at the other one who was lying under him with a kind of satisfied look on his face which was hard to interpret. “You really want to get punched that badly?”

“If you wanted to punch me, you would have already done so,” Miyadate replied in a way too calm voice, compared to Watanabe who was already breathing hard through their struggle and couldn’t actually connect any dots in his current state.

First Watanabe wanted to get up, but Miyadate held him down on his sleeves on which Watanabe clenched his hands into his collar to bring their faces closer. “Then why don’t you leave me alone?”

“Maybe because I am your best shot at the moment to let off some steam?”

“You just said yourself that I don’t want to pick an actual fight with you.”

“Who said that fighting was the only way to do so?”

Watanabe wasn’t sure anymore if the words just sounded inviting to him, because he wanted them to or if Miyadate really knew what he was saying.

“You know what, screw this! This came all from you, so I don’t want to hear any complains later,” Watanabe let out kind of threatening, but Miyadate didn’t move, instead he kept staring at the other one. An intense stare which made Watanabe finally lose it and he crushed their lips together without another thought about any consequences.

As Miyadate responded right away to his rough movements he wasn’t even surprised, after all he had offered himself in the first place. Watanabe’s kiss turned so greedy after a while that Miyadate let his head drop to the ground again and the older one removed his hands from the other one’s collar just to move them into his hair.

Miyadate responded with one leg moving up between his tights and Watanabe didn’t even try to hide the moan which escaped him into the other one’s mouth.

This hadn’t actually been his plan, even though he couldn’t deny that one conversation with the boy had been enough to make him somehow interesting to him, but taking this step to actually vent his anger seemed kind of ridiculous, but that didn’t mean that he would stop.

His insides were still burning with anger, which made him kind of impatient, but his rough movements, his teeth burying in the other one’s lips from time to time and his hands pulling on his hair didn’t seem to bother Miyadate at all. But realizing that he was totally fine with it made something jump inside of Watanabe and he pulled back just to have a better look at the younger one. It was more than obvious on the way Miyadate looked at him that he had aimed for this since the moment they had entered the room, but out of some unknown reason Watanabe wanted to change his look. He wanted him to be the one with the lost expression, the one who needed more.

“Do you know what I could do to you in my state?” Watanabe asked, suddenly afraid of the sound of his own voice. He hadn’t even realized how right Miyadate was, how much he actually needed this.

“You think I would have let you realize your needs if I couldn’t take the aftermath?”

When Miyadate reached out and pulled Watanabe down on his neck he moved one of his hands from the latter’s hair to his cheek and brushed with his thumb over his lips. They kept looking at each other for a moment, as if they had frozen in time, but the actual moment just lasted for a few seconds before Watanabe grabbed the other one by the chin and tightened the grip on his hair with the other hand. Watanabe brushed over his lips with his own before he pulled back just enough so that their lips weren’t touching anymore.

“What if I lose control?”

“In my opinion you are too tame to actually lose control, but maybe you can surprise me?” Miyadate teased him and the latter let out a mischievous chuckle on that.

“Then I guess it is time to show you what I am capable of.”

“I’m all yours.”

The confidence in his voice made Watanabe finally lose the rest of his patience and he crushed their lips together again. Greedy hands found their way inside Miyadate’s yukata and pulled it open as much as possible, but the belt was in his way so he tried to get rid of it as fast as possible, but without a warning Miyadate used the older one’s distraction and turned them around. It didn’t even take longer than a second for Watanabe to struggle and try to turn them back again, but this time Miyadate seemed to go fully out on him as well. With a tight grip on his wrists he pinned him to the ground and gave him a satisfied smirk on which the other one wanted to change his expression so badly again.

“I thought this was my anger release session, not yours?”

Miyadate leant closer to his ear before he answered in a low voice. “How can you release your anger if you have no worthy opponent?”

A pleasured shiver ran down Watanabe’s back on his words and when the younger one reached out to find the opening of his yukata below the belt he let out a low chuckle.

“I guess I have to make clear who the winner is then.”

“Good luck with that,” Miyadate replied at the same moment as he found the opening of the yukata and wrapped his hand around the other one’s arousal and bit down on his neck the same moment.

Even though Watanabe still wanted to turn the game around, his grip on the other one wasn’t actually that effective for the following seconds. He had both hands clenched in his sleeves trying hard to stay as calm as possible. He couldn’t lose right from the start, after all he was known to last long in the ring!

“Already giving up?” Miyadate whispered into his ear while his other hand tried to get rid of the belt, but this time Watanabe’s hands also took action on their own. He moved one hand to the other one’s hair to pull his head back up to be able to kiss him again, but as he tried to grab his wrist to make him let go for now, he received a hard stroke over his full length. As a punishment for his teasing Watanabe bit down on his lip and Miyadate hissed and finally released him. His distraction was what Watanabe needed to shift his weight under him and kick one of Miyadate’s knees away to turn them around once more. Not giving the other one any space to struggle he pressed his body against the younger ones and left just enough space to move a hand between their bodies to finally get rid of the belts. With his own yukata pulled completely back already his belt wasn’t really holding anything together anymore and he pulled it away together with Miyadate’s.

Finally touching skin on skin their tension seemed to have jumped to the next level and Watanabe gave the other one a hard kiss again and didn’t even release him as it was obvious that he struggled for air. Without a warning Miyadate pushed himself away from him and gave him a harsh slap on which Watanabe gasped. The younger one’s expression had still not changed and even though Watanabe thought he had lost all his patience already and was going all out on the boy, he realized that he could still level things up. The question was just if the other one could handle it.

Lost in his thoughts he almost missed how Miyadate got ready to lunge out again, but before his palm could reach his cheek, the older one had grabbed his wrist and without being able to stop his own body from moving he had grabbed him by the throat with such a strong grip that the other one chocked.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because you need it and you know it,” Miyadate replied in a low voice, obviously having trouble to breathe. Before Watanabe could make a discussion out of it the other one started struggling again and succeeded in getting out of the other one’s grip and he jumped up just to shove Watanabe into the wall and sit down on his lap. The moment their erections brushed over each other when he sat down, Watanabe escaped a moan even though he bit his lip and tried to suppress it. Miyadate gave him a short satisfied smile on that before he pulled his head to the side with his hand clenched in his hair. When his teeth buried in the skin of his neck with way too much force Watanabe let out a small scream and tried to push him away, but again the other one wouldn’t make it easy for him. But this time Watanabe finally left all caution behind and stopped his mind from trying to figure out if this was right or wrong. He wouldn’t get an opportunity like this again and both were totally aware of what they were doing so why shouldn’t he just accept the offer? A weird offer indeed, but yes Miyadate was right, it was exactly what he needed and just one second in which his thoughts drifted off to the day of the attack was enough to make his mind go blank.

With more force than actually needed he pushed Miyadate away and the boy landed with his back first on the floor. Watanabe stood up and let his Yukata slide from his shoulders before he sat down over Miyadate’s hips. It was his turn to move his hips teasingly over the other ones and even though Miyadate tried to play tough the excitement on his face was more than visible. Not giving his body the chance to hesitate he leant forward and gave the younger one the same hard slap he had received before. And again the other one’s satisfied expression made him angrier again and he crushed their lips together once more while he somehow tried to get rid of Miyadate’s Yukata, even though it wasn’t actually in the way anymore.

“Move,” Watanabe demanded as he pulled the other one roughly up on his hair and Miyadate followed him into a sitting position. Impatiently Watanabe threw the other one’s Yukata to the ground, but halted his next attack for just a moment to take a better look at him. They were now both on their knees, right in front of each other and both had the same wild excitement shining in their eyes. Now it was just a question of physical strength and knowing that they both didn’t dare to make the first move for a while. They were so close that they could feel the other one’s breathe on their faces and their erratic breathing was all that was heard in the dark room.

Watanabe leant forward slowly until his lips almost touched the other one’s ear. “I won’t apologize if I break you,” he whispered against his skin and the other one shivered before he pulled back a little bit to be able to look at Watanabe’s face again. He moved his hand up to his face and stroke slowly with his fingers down to his chin before he grabbed it tightly and lifted it up, his lips now just inches away from his.

“You really think you can break me? The only one you are breaking is yourself, because you are weak!”

Provoking him was doing the trick and they both moved forward, their tongues inside the other one’s mouth as fast as their hands groping every part of skin they could find. They were still fighting about the upper hand, trying to throw the other one to the ground by pulling on his hair or kicking away a leg, but their desire to feel more and to touch more was making it harder to actually keep fighting.

Their bodies were completely pressed against each other and when Watanabe put all his weight to the front Miyadate finally stopped resisting and dropped on his back again. Without losing time the older one sat down between his legs and even though they started struggling on that move again Watanabe had gained full control of the situation already and wouldn’t let him get away again.

Watanabe leant forward again and grabbed the other one by the chin before he gave him a deep and long kiss to which the other one reacted immediately. When he pulled back the Miyadate tried to keep him close with his arms around his neck, but Watanabe gave him a teasing smile on that.

“Are you afraid of the next step or why are you trying to slow things down?”

“I’m just giving you the chance to make the best out of this situation.”

“Oh the best is still coming, so why don’t you finally accept your defeat?”

Again this confident look was on his face and Watanabe’s wish to break him was driving him insane. He pushed himself up so that the younger one couldn’t keep a hold on him, but he still kept his eyes fixed on him. After all he wanted to see how he broke!

Any kind of delay or preparation would destroy their efforts, so he shifted his weight once more and gave Miyadate a lopsided smirk before he pushed in.

Miyadate tried hard not to keep a straight face, but that made Watanabe push in even deeper and he didn’t gave him any time at all to relax as he grabbed him by the hips to bury himself as deep as possible. That finally made Miyadate reach his limits as well and he let out a groan and threw his head back with his eyes closed. His breathing pace has sped up immediately and it was obvious that he would need more time to adjust, but that would take away the fun, so Watanabe pulled out and rushed in right away once more and this time the sound Miyadate made was even louder and Watanabe’s excitement level just jumped through the roof, making him move faster with his feeling of guilt somewhere locked in the back of his head.

Unsatisfied with the way Miyadate tried to gain control over his body shaking under him and one hand trying to cover his face, Watanabe leant forward and pinned one arm over Miyadate’s head while he moved his other hand to his hair again.

“Look at me!” He demanded and halted his movements, waiting impatiently for Miyadate to open his eyes. When he finally did, Watanabe’s mouth corner twitched out of satisfaction; because the need in the boy’s eyes had finally destroyed his efforts to keep this oh so perfect straight face.

Between the pleasures there was still a sign of pain and deep down Watanabe regretted each move he made, but he could apologize later.

To his surprise Miyadate pulled him down without a warning and bit him quite harsh on his jawline on which Watanabe gave him a really hard thrust and the latter pulled back with a groan, but he still tried to keep their faces close, but he didn’t even try to get his façade up again. His greedy look was making his defeat more than obvious.

“Is that all you got? As I said you are way too tame,” Miyadate challenged him again on which the other one grabbed his legs to move them up even more to gain a better access and the next thrusts were so deep that it was obviously hard for the boy to stay sane as he bit his lip with such a force that it started bleeding.

Watanabe leant down and licked the blood from the other one’s lip. “I am just getting started,” he whispered against his lips and moved down to his neck to lick and bite his way down to his collarbone. He was definitely going to leave a lot of marks, not just on his upper body, but he didn’t care, at least not for now. His body demanded more and with his thrusts getting harder and his hands groping wherever he could find a new undiscovered skin part it didn’t take long for Miyadate’s body to complain about the denied help to find release. One hand was still trapped, but with the other one he tried to reach out to touch himself if Watanabe wasn’t doing him the favor, but he found his other hand trapped right next to his head as soon as Watanabe realized what he was up to.

“Why ruining the atmosphere so fast? I need to see more of your despair!” But even though Watanabe really wanted to keep going as long as possible, because after all the stress release through his actions was actually bigger than he had thought, he couldn’t deny that he was getting closer as well without wanting to. The problem was that he didn’t want a second round, at least not in the state he was in. He had broken all borders already and he wouldn’t be able to deal with it again. This was his only chance to finally vent his anger which he had locked inside over the last months and he wouldn’t back out now that the damage was already caused.

“Please…” Miyadate’s hoarse voice was heard under him, but Watanabe was again busy with exploring his body with his lips, but then a moan escaped him as he felt how he was getting way too close and the way the other one was shaking under him signaled him that he was the same, even though a lot of the shaking could also be explained by the very uncomfortable position and Watanabe’s rough movements, but again that wasn’t something that worried him at this very moment.

With more force than before Miyadate tried again to free his arms, but he couldn’t. He wanted to complain again or even beg if necessary, but then Watanabe’s lips were on his again and without any other option Miyadate used the kiss as his only possibility to distract himself. He parted his lips before the other one could even deepen the kiss and soon their moans made the kiss extremely messy, but they both refused to back off. Seconds later Watanabe finally released his wrists to move his hands to the other one’s hips, but even though he wanted to help him out finally it was too late, because with the next deep thrust Miyadate came with a deep moan into the older one’s mouth.

More than satisfied to have him come untouched Watanabe smiled into the kiss before he gave the other one some space to breathe and he sat up to satisfy his own needs. He had also reached his limits and after a few more thrusts he also reached his climax with a way too pleasured moan.

Instead of pulling out he dropped to the front, but let Miyadate find a more relaxing position. He rested his forehead on the latter’s chest which was still rising and falling in a fast rhythm.

“I’m sorry….” Watanabe let out finally in control of his own emotions and actions after his mind has switched from off to working mode again. But it was too late anyways, wasn’t it? The damage had been done and even an apology wouldn’t change anything at this point. When Miyadate moved under him he got ready to get pushed away or to get yelled at, but the latter just stroke with his hand carefully over his hair.

“You said you wouldn't apologize! I told you it was fine. It was my idea after all and I won’t scold you for something I came up with.”

“But I-...I hurt you…” Watanabe whispered in a broken voice and he didn’t even have to look up at the marks he had left after all he had done all the damage himself, so of course he knew how Miyadate’s body was looking through his actions. But instead of scolding him the other one let out a small chuckle.

“Better me than Abe I guess.”

It was hard to accept, but he was right. If Watanabe would have really clashed with his friend, because he couldn’t keep his anger about his own weakness locked away anymore until they reached their real enemy, then the situation could have ended way worse.

“Thank you…” Watanabe let out in a shaking voice and even though he tried hard to suppress the sob that followed, Miyadate had of course heard it. As well as the sobs that followed, muffled on his chest. He kept stroking over his hair, waiting patiently for Watanabe to calm down, even if it would take the whole day. They were stuck for now anyways, so he didn’t mind taking care of him. To be honest he even enjoyed it, hoping that he could support him in an easier way from now on.


	12. Chapter 12

Taiga wasn’t sure how much time had passed before the door opened again, but once more he was sure that it was someone he didn’t know who entered. Even though he heard that it was just one person this time it wouldn’t make him relax. His mind was still in a state of panic and his body needed more sleep and definitely more water and food, but of course that was secondary for now. He tried to stay as calm as possible and listen to the steps which the other one made to the bed. Not being able to see who it was and not knowing where exactly he was made his panic level rise to an unhealthy extent again.

“Stay away!” Taiga let out in a steady voice as he felt how the other one sat down on the side of the bed. Pressing himself against the backrest of the bed he tried to stay on distance as much as possible, but he wouldn’t be able to jump up or run away from him. Without seeing where he was running and with his hands tied on his back he would end up hurting himself in the progress. The other one didn’t really bother reacting to him or speak to him in the first place and of course he didn’t stay on distance. Without hesitation and with way more force than needed he grabbed Taiga by the metal collar and pulled him to the front. But instead of letting him drop to the bed he moved to sit behind him and closed one arm around his upper body so that he couldn’t struggle while his other hand found its way directly to his still open pants.

“CUT THIS SHIT OUT ALREADY!” Taiga shouted, not sure if his words were for the other one or for Domoto, because he was more than sure by now that he was behind all this and he was definitely close by.

Taiga had no chance of getting away with his opponent being way stronger than him and having so many disadvantages on his side. But that didn’t stop him from struggling as the other one took it further than the two from before and he slipped his hand right under Taiga’s underwear and the boy bit his lip trying hard to keep it together. He would stop at some point, right? He would just disappear as the others after bringing enough despair over him. But what if not? The way the other one touched him shamelessly and then suddenly pushed him forward and moved his other hand to his pants to pull them down Taiga’s mind went blank once more. With the last strength he could somehow find he turned and twisted under him until the other one had to at least get his hands off for a brief moment which was long enough for Taiga to somehow get one leg up and he hit the other one perfectly between his legs. A hiss and a low curse was what followed and Taiga tried to crawl away from him and if possible get off the bed, even if he risked hurting himself. If he couldn’t make his almost paralyzed body move he would end up even more hurt. But of course he couldn’t even get up before the other one got a grip again and Taiga let out a pained yelp as a punch landed on his cheekbone. This time the other one didn’t show any mercy anymore as he launched himself at Taiga and forced him on his back, trying to strip him out of his pants again. Taiga shouted some inarticulate curses at him while he tried desperately to get his hands free to somehow defend himself, but he could already feel how his wrists were taking more damage than the ropes through his tries to rip them apart. Soon his scream were replaced by lower and more desperate whimpers while his body started shaking uncontrollable under the other one’s touch. He was more than sure that this time he wouldn’t be that lucky, that he had lost for sure this time, but then it happened again. Without any explanation the other one let go of him, got up from the bed and left him alone.

“Damn it,” Taiga let out in a shaking voice and he knew that he was about to completely break under this insane game sooner or later. Once more he proceeded to reduce the damage, but what was the meaning of getting his clothes back up each time when someone else would definitely come again to mess with him. But the worst was not knowing if there was a point they wouldn’t leave like this anymore. What was he aiming for anyways?

Taiga cursed in silence as the door opened again just minutes later and he was ready to start screaming outraged before the person even closed the door, but this time something was different. Taiga knew those slow and calm movements of the other one. The way he closed the door carefully with almost no sound and didn’t walk up to him directly, but proceeded to walk through the room with slow steps and Taiga could perfectly imagine how he had his hands on his back, staring out of the window, dressed in his long cloak with a silk shirt underneath again.

“What do you want?” Taiga hissed at him before he could stop himself. He wasn’t sure if it was a smart move to show Domoto how insecure he felt, but what else was he supposed to do? Yes the other one had finally succeeded in breaking down his defenses and he didn’t even need to see him to know that he had a triumphing smile on his face.

“Can’t I just take a look how you are feeling?”

On that Taiga escaped a mocking chuckle as he sat up crossed legged on the bed. “Pretending to not know of anything. You really think I would fall for that trick? What did you expect? That I come crawling to you and ask you to stop?” He shot the words at him without any caution, but there was something that was bothering him. It was still small and easily locked out of his mind, but it was still there! The exactly opposite to what he had just said, because truth was that the moment he had realized that it had been Domoto who had entered he had felt extremely relieved and it shocked him.

“Still the same impertinent behavior, I see,” was all Domoto answered as he stepped closer to the bed and Taiga heart how he lifted something up from the nightstand and then he remembered that he had left the water bottle there and without wanting to he gulped as Domoto sat down on the bed next to him.

“You know what I am expecting of you! It’s not that difficult and it would spare you some really tormenting days.” So of course it had been his idea, why should he try to keep it a secret anyways? But Taiga shook his head right away. He was still not at that point, still not ready to lose this battle.

When Domoto’s hand landed under his chin, Taiga gasped, but didn’t pull back. The touch was too calm to actually fear that he would make a move again. “I will be nice and get someone to bring you food and untie you to get back to your daily routine, but I hope to see some progress through offering you this. I am not that kind to anyone, you know?”

The next thing touching his skin was the water bottle right under his lips and he flinched a little bit on the cold touch. For a moment he didn’t move, but Domoto stayed patient as always and waited for Taiga’s reaction. Inside of him a huge storm had broken loose. He was so angry at Domoto and even angrier at himself and he gritted his teeth before he lowered his head a little bit to find the opening of the bottle with his lips and Domoto escaped an approving hum as he lifted the bottle so that Taiga could drink.

Trying to not gulp the water down too hasty this time Taiga drank as much as his body needed and it was a lot after all. He hadn’t gotten enough water or food over the last days after all and his body was also weakened through the continuous cold, so even though he felt totally beaten again through taking Domoto’s offer instead of ignoring him, he wasn’t stupid enough to refuse.

“Such a good boy,” Domoto let out pleased when Taiga took another sip before he pulled back, but his words made his blood boil in less than a second and instead of swallowing he guessed where Domoto was sitting and spit the water in his face.

The silence that followed just confirmed that he had aimed right and Taiga formed a mocking smile.

“I am not your boy,” he hissed at the older one, but instead of answering, Domoto just got up from the bed and put the bottle down next to it again.

“You can call yourself lucky that I have a good day and while excuse your behavior. Rest assure that your next visit won’t be a punishment, but I can’t guarantee for the following ones if you keep acting this stubborn.”

Without any other comment he left him alone again and Taiga escaped a long sigh before he dropped to the bed again. Making this move could have brought a lot of trouble upon him. He had been almost sure that Domoto would use Reo again to punish him, but on the other hand he hadn’t seen the boy at all for the last day and somehow it worried him. Had he been completely forbidden to see him? Had Domoto’s punishment been bad enough to make him unable to come? Taiga didn’t want to think about him too much while he had to worry about himself in the first place, but somehow it took some fear away if he didn’t think about the upcoming visits. After all Domoto had promised that the next visit was for his sake, to finally get back to the daily routine which Reo normally took care of, but that wouldn’t make him relax, because what awaited him afterwards could be way worse than what he had to go through until now. And his defenses were almost down completely he could feel his breakdown approaching with each time the door opened. It was just a matter of time until he would find himself thrown back completely to his teenage self, unprotected and alone, with no way out anymore.

***

It wasn’t before afternoon had arrived that Shintaro finally woke up again and Ueda faced him with a faint smile as he looked around kind of confused.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better I guess,” Shintaro said and tried carefully to sit up and Ueda helped him, sitting down next to him on the bed.

“Where are the others?”

“Abe is out to get some more medicine and Miyadate and Watanabe are better left alone for today I think.”

“Did something happen?” Shintaro asked worried, but Ueda shook his head with a soothing expression. “Abe and Watanabe clashed in the morning, because Abe said he would stay behind with you, but luckily Miyadate succeeded in getting him out the room before the argument could escalate. But I have the feeling that we shouldn’t disturb them for the rest of the day. Watanabe will talk to Abe if he is ready.”

Shintaro nodded slowly, needing a moment to catch up with the situation, but when he did he blinked at the other one in confusion. “Wait? Abe and I are staying behind?”

Ueda bit his lip with a guilty expression and Shintaro let out a sigh, but he didn’t seem to feel offended by their decision, he was slowing them down after all.

“I am really sorry for causing so much trouble. If you had left me behind from the start you could have already reached Tokyo. Now we have to split up after all.”

“Don’t worry about it. As soon as Abe is sure that your wound will be okay, you two will follow us. I make sure that Abe can find our club in Tokyo.”

“Your club...you think they are okay?” Shintaro asked worried and with a lot of insecurity in his voice. It was obvious that he didn’t want to offend Ueda or imply that their club was weak, but he knew what Mugen was capable of and Ueda luckily got his point.

“Of course we don’t know how things are in Tokyo at the moment, if Domoto has already returned or not, but trust me that those boys at that club are not easily beaten.” Ueda formed a bright smile while talking about them, because after all he knew that they would stop at nothing to protect the club and its members.

“Your club seems like a really awesome place.”

“They are my family,” Ueda replied and eyed the boy with a raised eyebrow as his expression turned gloomy. “If you don’t want to talk about it then I won’t ask again, but how did you end up at Mugen?”

Of course they all heard the rough version, because after all Mugen had a pattern which was easily to follow, but Shintaro was one of the youngest members, but also with them for a long time as it seemed and he still decided to run away, even with the danger of getting killed.

“It’s okay, no worries,” Shintaro started with a brief, but sad smile before his thoughts seemed to drift of for a moment. “They didn’t actually intend to take me with them. I was still in the 3rd fighting class at that time. It was right after the war and our club was small compared to most others, but after attacking some clubs in Tokyo they came to our club in Chiba.”

“So Mugen acted in Tokyo while the big clubs were having tournaments and weren’t aware of anything? Not even the Titanium Triangle noticed?”

“They were extremely careful at that time. They aimed for smaller clubs first and went out of Tokyo quite fast and sent members back frequently. When they tried to take one of my friends with them I tried to stop them, but in the end it was my friend who had to protect me and that costed him his life. Domoto took me with them instead and of course it wasn’t difficult to make me follow their rules at that time. I was alone and scared.” Shintaro let out a sigh and rested his elbows on his knees with his hands in his hair. Ueda understood his situation perfectly, but there was nothing comforting he could say. It was something Shintaro had to deal with alone, but the fact that he had found the courage to run made it clear that he was on the right way. “Do you want to know?” He suddenly asked and Ueda blinked at him in confusion. Shintaro bit his lip and faced the ground for a moment. “Do you want to know what Domoto can do to him?”

The questions actually hit Ueda like a shot through the chest and he couldn’t even think of any answer for the next minutes. Shintaro just stayed silent and waited.

“To be honest I don’t. But on the other hand I should know what kind of enemy I am facing the moment we finally meet again,” Ueda let out in a hurt voice. The fact that he couldn’t help Taiga at all was driving him insane and knowing what could happen to him wasn’t making it easier, but more information would make it easier for him to actually form a plan before the battle.

“With his fighters he runs out of patience quite fast. Who doesn’t bow dies! That’s all. I saw a lot of strong fighters dying over the last years. Those who refused to follow him, those who tried to fight him and those who tried to run, all of them died.”

“And here you are still alive.”

Shintaro escaped a small chuckle on that, because he didn’t even know himself how he had found the courage to run and he still wasn’t sure how he was still alive.

“Reo is maybe the most dangerous fighter Domoto had ever brought to Mugen, but he was also the most difficult to get under his control.”

“So why didn’t he kill him?”

That question made Shintaro’s look darken and Ueda wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to hear more out of a sudden.

“He can be really patient...if he has a special kind of interest in a person.”

That was exactly what he didn’t want to hear. Especially because he remembered the look Domoto gave Taiga and he knew that Taiga and Reo were similar in some points.

“So that means I can hope that Taiga is still alive, but also have to fear that he is going through hell right now,” Ueda concluded and Shintaro didn’t even have to answer, his apologizing look was already enough.

“Reo came into Mugen after me and even though I didn’t see the whole procedure I saw enough to see how cruel Domoto can be and how much he enjoys it to break people beyond return. But don’t lose hope when you find them in Tokyo and Taiga doesn’t seem to be himself anymore,” Shintaro added right away. “After all the talks we had I am sure that Taiga can find his own way to deal with whatever torture Domoto has prepared for him. I can just warn you that you might be shocked by how he might have changed through Domoto’s treatment, but don’t judge the situation too hasty! Maybe things aren’t as they seem!”

“I know him better than anyone else and I trust him and know that he is strong, maybe stronger than all of us. But even he has his limits,” Ueda let out worried, not wanting to think about it too much. He could just hope that he would make it in time. He wasn’t ready to pick up pieces instead of the strong boy he fought for over all those years to finally find his own path and his own future. It wasn’t fair to throw him back into hell after all the dark chapters they had faced together.

“Whatever happens, trust me I won’t give up on him!” Ueda assured the boy and Shintaro gave him an encouraging smile on that.

***

Abe wasn’t sure if he was actually surprised to see Watanabe walking up and down in front of their Ryokan as he came back with the medication. But he was definitely in a scolding mood, because the boy had no jacket on and it was even colder now that the sun had almost set. Watanabe hadn’t seen him approaching while he jumped from one leg to the other and tried to warm up his hands with his breath. He flinched when Abe’s jacket suddenly landed on his shoulders and he turned around with a startled expression which changed to an apologizing one right away.

“You won’t be able to apologize if you freeze to death before that,” Abe scolded him and Watanabe tried to take the jacket off his shoulders, but Abe pulled it close over his chest and kept a tight hold on it. “Don’t even try to play all cool and calm now, I know why you are here!”

Of course Abe knew, he always knew everything, especially when it was about his friends. But that didn’t make it easier for Watanabe. He had locked himself with Miyadate in his room for the rest of the day and even though nothing else had happened between them, he still felt weird about the whole situation. Miyadate had made sure that he would get to sleep for some time and after noon he had even brought him something to eat which made Watanabe feel even guiltier and weak. And he hated it to feel weak!

In the afternoon they had finally gotten completely dressed again and left the room separately. It wasn’t like Miyadate regretted what they did, but he also definitely needed some time to think.

After running around without a plan for a while Watanabe had ended up in Shintaro’s room finding the boy alone. They had had a short talk and after Shintaro told him that he knew about the fight between him and Abe he felt even worse about the whole situation. When Ueda had come back to take a look at Shintaro, Watanabe had apologized quickly for his behavior in the morning before he went out to wait for Abe as Ueda told him that he would come back soon.

“So? I am all ears,” Abe continued with a knowing smile, but instead of saying something Watanabe chewed on the inside of his cheek not sure how to start, even though it should be quite easy. He just needed three words to make everything right again.

“I’m sorry…” he let out after another moment of silence and Abe hit him against the shoulder with a bright smile.

“Of course you are. You are always sorry after you yell at one of us. Okay even though when you and Saku yell at each other it takes a while longer for you guys to make up again. Remember when we had to lock you two in a room so you would finally make up again?”

On that Watanabe escaped a small chuckle, but his gloomy expression wouldn’t completely vanish and that was when Abe cupped his face so that he would look up at him.

“Shota, I know that you didn’t want to yell at me! I also didn’t want to yell at you, but we are all in a pretty messed up state at the moment, it would be more than stupid to stay angry at each other. But I want you to understand my reasons for staying behind! You have to find Mugen as fast as possible. If Saku is still alive then we have to hurry, because each day could be his last.”

Abe’s words made Watanabe shiver as the cruel reality hit him like a punch in the face again and he slowly nodded. “I am sorry for doubting your decision, you are right! And it is not because of Shintaro. I know he won’t do you any harm.”

“Finally you accept yourself that you trust him!”

Abe pulled him closer and gave him a peck on the forehead before he let go of him and turned him around, pushing him towards the door. “And now inside with you, before we both freeze to death here! You have to get your stuff together. You need to leave tomorrow morning!”

Watanabe finally cracked a small smile on that and nodded. He had to accept his friend’s decision and even though he would be separated from both of his friends like this, he also knew that it was his responsibility to get them all safe back together.


	13. Chapter 13

As promised Taiga was able to get back to his daily routine which Reo had been in charge of so far. The person who had come two times over the day until now to untie him wasn’t really speaking that much, except for the warning that he wasn’t allowed to take off the blindfold which made Taiga almost freak at him, but he knew that he should preserve his strength for later. After all he knew that it wouldn’t be nice visits each time the door opened and not knowing the intentions of the next person entering, the sound of the door drove him almost insane by now.

At night time he had found himself back on the bed with his hands tied to his back once more. But at least he had finally gotten an acceptable amount of food and water, but his body would still need more to recover completely. He was allowed to stay in Reo’s room instead of sitting on the cold ground next to the throne, which was at least a small relief. But Taiga had to go through two more unpleasant visits and by now he wasn’t even able to defend himself anymore. If they went through with it then he wouldn’t be able to stop them he was sure of that. The door had just closed a few minutes ago and it was definitely already in the middle of the night and Taiga’s body was in a desperate need of sleep, but his fear of getting attacked while sleeping made it impossible to stay calm enough to give his body the rest it needed.

When he heard the sound of the door again he cursed in silence, but didn’t even try to get up. He waited until the person that had entered came closer, but nothing happened and somehow it made Taiga panic even more for a moment, before his thoughts finally made a move towards the other direction. He couldn’t be that lucky, could he? But even after minutes the other one didn’t speak, but he was definitely still standing next to the bed.

“Reo?”

Instead of answering the other one sat down on the bed and Taiga rose up into a sitting position. The other one proceeded to untie his hands out of a sudden, but when Taiga wanted to get the blindfold off the moment his hands were free he was stopped.

“Don’t! Trust me, you don’t want to take it off.”

Reo’s hoarse voice made Taiga’s stomach twist and he lowered his hands again. “What did he do to you, Reo?” Taiga asked directly, but instead of an answer he got a bitter chuckle as a response.

“After all I did to you, you ask something like this? You are indeed strong.”

“Cut out your stupid mocking, would you? Are you okay?” Taiga couldn’t even explain why he was so worried all of a sudden, but after all that had happened he had finally understood that he and Reo were sharing the same fate and that he shouldn’t treat him as the enemy Domoto was. He searched for the other one’s body with his hands and to his surprise Reo didn’t try to push him away. His fingertips found his face really fast and the boy shivered slightly as he found some bruises on his skin. Taiga didn’t need to search for more on the rest of his body. He knew that they were there.

“You shouldn’t have helped me,” Taiga let out in a low voice, but again the answer was a chuckle.

“Who said I helped you? I just prevented you from strangling yourself that night.”

“Sure…” Taiga replied with a sigh.

“But I guess this time I won’t be part of the game, so I hope you are prepared to lose this battle.”

Taiga bit his lip on that and clenched his hands into the sheets. So the boy wasn’t actually allowed to be here, which made Taiga feel even worse. If someone saw him he would get punished again and Taiga didn’t want that. He couldn’t forget Reo’s broken expression when he had handed Domoto the whip and he didn’t want to think of what the boy had faced over the time since he had been forced to join Mugen.

“So are you planning on bowing to him?”

“No!” Taiga shot back at him without any hesitation.

“I see, still as stubborn as before. Your pride is getting in the way of your strength! Like this you will lose not just this battle, but the whole war.”

“Save your preaching for someone who wants to hear it! I am not going to lose against him.”

“Oh you really think you can beat him in his own game? Let me tell you that even the strongest person will break under this kind of pressure at some point.”

“So what? You want me to break already, so that I can get over with it? Sorry I won’t do him that favor. I won’t give up that easily.”

“It’s not about giving up, but about finding another way of handling things,” Reo explained in a way too calm voice and it made Taiga snap out of a sudden.

“To turn into someone like you? Faking a smile every day and hurting whoever he tells me to hurt to not get punished again? I am not that pathetic!”

Taiga took some deep breaths after his outburst and he needed a moment to catch up to what he had just said. Which made him realize that he had let out his anger towards the complete wrong person and in the harshest way possible. He felt how Reo shifted next to him and he was sure that he wanted to get up. But before he could do so Taiga searched for his shirt and clawed his hands into it to keep him on the bed.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!” He felt so stupid for saying things he didn’t even mean. Hadn’t he just accepted that Reo was stuck in the same mess he was in? “Reo, I am sorry! I really am! I shouldn’t have said that!” Taiga’s voice was shaking and he felt how his body started shaking as well. Every time Reo was with him he felt like his defenses broke even easier, but he didn’t really mind it at the moment. Reo was the only one who understood him and the only one he could trust, so he didn’t want to build this wall between them now that it had finally crumbled.

“I’m sorry...please, don’t leave me alone. I can’t stand being alone anymore, waiting for him to take this insane game to the next level. I just want him to stop…” Taiga kept talking without even realizing that his voice was slowly breaking. Just when a tear slipped out under the blindfold he finally accepted that he had crumbled completely for the first time since he had been brought here. He gritted his teeth and tried to get a grip again, but then Reo moved and made him let go of his clothes just to be able to pull him into a tight hug.

“It’s okay…” Reo whispered in a calm voice and Taiga buried his face on the boy’s shoulder and grabbed the back of his shirt with shaking hands. Giving up in front of Reo was feeling liberating instead of downgrading and he kept crying until there were no tears left to fall anymore. He wasn’t sure if he had imagined the sobs coming from Reo in between or not, but he wouldn’t try to look at him. The boy had his own problems to deal with and if he didn’t want to involve Taiga in his mess then he had to accept it.

“By the way I heard about your water move earlier,” Reo let out as Taiga had finally calmed down a little bit, but he still kept him in a close hug. Taiga let out a bitter chuckle on that and buried his face even deeper against the other one’s body.

“Stupid, isn’t it? Provoking him will just make things worse for me.”

“Oh no worries, I totally understand you. The first time he made a move on me I spit him in the face. You can imagine the consequences, but it was worth seeing his face after it.”

Taiga escaped a small laughter on that, because he remembered how Domoto had looked at him after Reo had emptied the bucket of water over him and spitting him in the face had definitely an even bigger effect on his mood.

“I would have loved to see that,” Taiga replied on which Reo chuckled as well before he finally pulled back, but his hands landed on Taiga’s cheek and he wiped away the last tears rolling down the boy’s face.

“What will happen if I lose?” Taiga asked.

“It depends on how you lose. As I said if you break under the pressure he will gain full control and there won’t be any way out for you anymore. But that is why you have to use your strength to bend and not to break!”

“Bend?” Taiga repeated and even though he couldn’t see it he knew that Reo was nodding.

“You are strong, Taiga! But you have to use this strength in other ways. It won’t be easy and it will bring you to the edge of despair, but your chances of winning this game in the end are way bigger like that. You have to learn how to read him then you can make him fall in his own trap!”

Taiga nodded slowly, knowing that he was right. He understood his point, but he had to figure out himself how he had to use this strength in the right way from now on.

A sound in the corridors made them both jolt, but luckily the door didn’t open and after a moment the castle fell silent again.

“I should leave,” Reo let out, even though the way he still didn’t move his hand away from Taiga’s face signaled him that he didn’t want to be left alone either. After all Taiga was in his room, so where was he going? Taiga didn’t want to know, because of course he could imagine.

“Will you be okay?”

“I am always okay. As long as I keep smiling everything is fine,” Reo let out with a chuckle, but this time the bitterness and defeat were more than obvious.

When Reo tried to move back, Taiga moved his hands up to the latter’s face and pulled him closer, pressing his lips against his forehead for a moment before he wanted to release him again. But to his surprise Reo held him close and cupped his face once more, giving him a kiss on the lips. It didn’t even last long enough for Taiga to react and when Reo pulled back a weird silence followed for a while.

“Sorry,” Reo let out apologizing, but Taiga couldn’t be angry at him. He shook his head and formed a smile before he searched for his face once more and stroke over his cheek. At least it seemed like he had found the explanation why the boy was helping him and there was no reason to get angry at him. It was a really messed up situation for both of them and sooner or later things would have been out in the open anyways.

“It’s okay. After you did so much for me already, I guess this is the least I can do for you.”

“Thank you.”

Reo took away Taiga’s hand from his face and kissed his fingers once before he tied his hands on his back.

“We are going to return to Tokyo tomorrow. The real battle for all of us will start from then on,” he said after he got up and walked up to the door. “Even if I can’t be right next to you, remember that I’ll try to watch out for you as good as possible!”

“Thank you and please remember that I am also here for you,” Taiga replied and he was sure that Reo understood that even though Taiga had accepted his sudden confession that he would be there for him as a friend, but not more. And then the door opened and closed again and silence followed.

Taiga hadn’t expected any of the happenings of this night and he would need some time to realize what had just happened. But at least he had finally calmed down a little bit and he dropped back on the bed and let out a long sigh.

“Don’t break, bend!”

It was worth a try, wasn’t it? After all he had just learnt that Reo wasn’t just suffering the same way he did, but was also able to show his despair and crave for someone to rescue him. Like this Taiga was the boy’s chance to finally get out of this hell as well. Shintaro had made it, so why shouldn’t they be able to? Taiga closed his eyes and tried to gather all his strength for the upcoming day. He wouldn’t lose, he wouldn’t break, he would just bring the necessary sacrifices to win Domoto’s trust and turn the tables as soon as he could. He just had to watch out to not lose himself in the progress.

***

Abe urged the others to leave as early as possible the next morning and after Watanabe had asked for the third time if he and Shintaro would be okay, Ueda had finally shoved him towards the direction of the station.

Of course Watanabe had tried to not show his worries too much, but Abe ensured him about a dozen times that he was fine and that they would follow as soon as Shintaro was okay again.

“Are you okay?” Ueda asked Miyadate after he followed them in silence for half the way already, his eyes showing that he hadn’t slept that well, but he just smiled and nodded.

“All good, don’t worry.”

Ueda just nodded on that, but didn’t really believe him, after all Watanabe also looked like shit and he knew that it wasn’t just because of Abe. After what happened the morning before and Watanabe and Miyadate had been gone for the rest of the day they both spread a weird tense atmosphere when they were close to each other. Not wanting to make the situation even worse, Ueda left it at this for now and didn’t try to make them speak to each other. After all he knew that weird behavior and even without knowing what had happened he understood that they had to sort things out themselves.

“So we can go until Chiba or further?” Ueda changed the topic when they were finally close to the station and Miyadate counted the remaining money with a slightly worried look. “

We could have all gone to Chiba if we hadn’t stopped. But now that we had to spend some money for the ryokan and Shintaro’s medication we can be lucky that we are just three at the moment or we wouldn’t get that far.”

“Means we will arrive in Chiba in the afternoon and if we walk through the night we can be in Tokyo the next morning. After all we can rest in the train and no one is hurt, so we can all walk through the night....right?” Watanabe asked.

Miyadate needed a moment to realize that the question was directed to him and he could see the guilt in the other one’s eyes which came with it.

“Yes of course, the only one who wouldn’t be able to do so at the moment is Shintaro,” Miyadate answered, but Watanabe still didn’t seem as if he was convinced.

“Okay let’s discuss all this when we are on the train, okay? Let’s go before we have to wait for the next one,” Ueda said and clapped the boys on the shoulders to make them move again.

The train wasn’t that crowded luckily and the found four seats where they had enough space to put their luggage on the free seat, not that they had more than one bag each anyway.

“Where are you going?” Miyadate asked when Ueda stood up after a few minutes.

“I don’t like sitting around for hours, I can’t sleep that easily on trains, so I will just take a walk through the other wagons. Please feel free to sleep for a while, I will wake you both up later.”

With a brief smile he left the two boys alone and Watanabe rested with the side of his head next to the window and stared outside absentminded, but of course Miyadate noticed the brief and guilty looks he gave him from time to time. They were sitting opposite each other and Watanabe tried hard to focus on something else, but it was just not working.

“Would you stop that?” Miyadate scolded him after a while.

“Stop what?”

“Oh come on Shota, you know what I mean.”

Getting called by his first name all of a sudden made him sit up straight. It wasn’t like Miyadate’s tone would give away his feelings so easily, but choosing his first name did somehow and Watanabe hoped that he interpreted it right.

“Are you angry?” He asked carefully, not even able to face him straight and he played with his sleeves instead.

“Why would I?”

“Are you?”

“Oh come on, stop it already,” Miyadate let out more aggressive than he wanted and Watanabe looked up at him briefly before he let out a sigh and dropped with his back against the backrest. Miyadate took a look around, but he still hadn’t been loud enough to startle the other people. “You actually make me angry with your behavior right now, but no I am not angry for what we did.”

“What I did,” Watanabe corrected him in an almost inaudible voice.

“No Shota, if it was just you then I wouldn’t have lured you in that situation from the start. I was the one who offered you to take the chance.”

“And I was stupid enough to take it.”

“So you regret it? Because I don’t!”

That actually made Watanabe look up at him again and he could see that he had really made the other one angry with asking in the first place. But his guilt was eating him up and he needed to have this talk no matter the outcome.

“I- I don’t know. I just think I could have handled it differently.”

“Liar.”

Miyadate’s snappy answer didn’t even make him angry, because if he wanted to accept it or not, he was right. He was in a state of denial and guilt, but something else made it hard for him to accept that he had screwed up so bad.

“Why don’t you just accept it as it is? Why do you have to beat yourself so badly for it, while I am totally fine with it.”

“Because I am afraid that if I say it was okay that you will turn your back on me.”

He had said it. Slowly he lifted his gaze to the other one’s face again and there was no confusion in the latter’s eyes. He had definitely understood what that meant. But he didn’t say anything; instead he seemed to wait for Watanabe to continue.

“If I accept it and stop feeling guilty about it then you might think of me as a really cruel person and I wouldn’t be able to take it. I- I don’t want this to end here, just because I am such a weak idiot. I don’t want to lose you right away…”

Watanabe’s words got quieter until they got replaced by a sigh and he put his forehand down into his palms. He wasn’t even sure anymore if his words were making any sense to the other one, after all it was the first time he had to voice out thoughts like this. He had never felt this way before, which made it even harder to accept that he had hurt him.

He flinched when Miyadate suddenly reached out for his hands and pulled them away from his face. He tried to look away, but the younger one stopped him and cupped his face to make him look up.

“If you don’t want to lose me then you should accept the fact that I am willing to do everything to keep you from destroying yourself.”

“Why?” Watanabe whispered in a hurt voice, because even though his stomach seemed to start dancing on his words he didn’t want to feel pleased about it. He would never take advantage of him like this again and he didn’t want him to offer it.

“Because I don’t want to lose you either,” Miyadate said with a brief smile, but the other one could still not reply to it. “Please don’t make it that hard for us, okay? It wasn’t a good start I know. But we are not really in a situation where we could just lean back and take our time to get to know each other in a calm surrounding. Everything that happened was really rushed, but nothing either of us should regret, because we both chose it. So if you tell me that you regret-”

“I don’t regret it!” Watanabe let out almost panicked, because he knew that Miyadate would want to go on distance if he wasn’t able to finally face reality and as stupid as it sounded, losing Miyadate at this critical moment would break him. “I lost Saku, now I left Ryohei behind, if you are leaving my side as well now, I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Watanabe shook his head as much as he could with Miyadate still cupping his face and they completely ignored their surroundings for now, hoping that most of the people were sleeping anyways. Watanabe had teared up by now and it was clear that this conversation alone had brought him to his limits, so Miyadate wanted to state his point as clear and direct as possible. Which he did! He leant forward and kissed Watanabe carefully, but also kind of demanding. He didn’t want to give him the feeling that he wasn’t allowed to pull back, but he also didn’t want him to decide too rushed.

Watanabe froze for a few seconds and Miyadate did nothing to change it. His hands moved away from his face slowly and he was ready to back off as no response followed, but then Watanabe’s hands were suddenly in his hair, holding him in place. He had moved so fast that he had pulled harshly on his hair first, resulting with Miyadate letting out a small groan into the kiss, but almost as if he wanted to apologize Watanabe titled his head and licked over his lips, while one hand went down to his face and caressed his cheek.

It wasn’t like they could take it any further between all the people and Miyadate responded to the older one’s movements and deepened the kiss just for a brief moment, before they both back off.

Watanabe dropped back right away, moving one hand to his lips and taking a worried look around, but as they had hoped most of the people were asleep or in their own conversations, not spending them any attention.

“So I guess I don’t have to worry about you asking me stupid questions anymore?” Miyadate asked with a satisfied look on his face.

“Miyadate, you know-”

“Ryota!”

It didn’t come out angry, but more like sulky as if he was disappointed that he had changed to the first name right away and Watanabe didn’t.

“Okay, Ryota,” Watanabe tried again while trying to hide his smile, but of course the other one noticed and when Miyadate rolled his eyes at him, he leant forward and patted his knee with a low chuckle. “I am sorry. I am not making fun of you.”

“Maybe making fun of me is better than feeling sorry for me or being angry.”

“Also true, so should I make fun out of you?”

“No,” Miyadate replied pouting and this time both boys couldn’t stop from bursting into loud laughter. This time they had made some people turn towards them, but they didn’t mind.

“I won’t make you feel uneasy about it anymore, I promise!” Watanabe said more serious this time, but still with a smile and Miyadate nodded at him with a thankful expression.

Everything had happened way too fast between them and their start was definitely everything else than a pleasant memory. But they had both made a decision that day and now they had to see how things would work out. With both of them being willing to try and keep going, they had at least each other to relay on for the hardship that was definitely awaiting them as soon as they would reach Tokyo.


	14. Chapter 14

As Reo had said they prepared everything in the morning to leave, but that didn’t stop Domoto from continuing his game.

The worst by now was the blindfold for Taiga. He couldn’t stand it anymore to be unable to see anyone around him. It didn’t just feel like a disadvantage, but also like they could mock him even easier like this.

His thoughts were still at Reo’s and his conversation as the door opened again in the afternoon, but once more the calm and slow steps were easily for him to recognize.

Domoto walked closer to the bed, but didn’t sit down.

“We are leaving for Tokyo soon and it’s your choice if this travel will be pleasant for you or not.”

Yesterday Taiga would have shot him a snappy answer right away, but not anymore. He had to calculate his moves and predict Domoto’s reaction as good as possible.

“What do I have to do so that you will stop?”

“Oh, do I hear a change of mind there?” Domoto asked in a suddenly excited voice.

“Demands on your conditions,” Taiga said and tried to remain as calm as possible. He had to watch out that Domoto wouldn’t read him instead of the other way around. If he just gave up then he would definitely get suspicious after he rebelled for such a long time.

“You know my condition since the first day.”

“And you think I would believe you that it would end at that one condition?”

“At least this game would end, I can promise you that and that’s what you want, right?”

Taiga couldn’t deny that Domoto was a master in his own game, but for now he had to make one careful step after the other, calculating the consequences. When he sat up on the bed and searched carefully for the end of it to stand up, his body moved more than reluctantly, while his mind shouted at it to shut up and obey. It wasn’t like he was proud of his decision, but he needed this to stop or Reo’s prediction would come true sooner or later.

After he was finally standing next to the bed he waited a moment and as expected Domoto stepped closer and moved the back of his hand with a light touch over his cheek. Taiga didn’t even flinch on the touch. He had gone through way worse over the last days.

“And now?” Domoto asked with high expectations as he took a step back again and for a while Taiga remained rooted to the spot. He clenched his fists behind his back, his wrists burning through the ropes and he would definitely need them to be treated as soon as possible, but for that he had to be able to see again. Both things he could archive with one action and he took a last deep breath before he ordered his body to move and he slowly dropped to his knees. He could hear how Domoto let out a small sound, as if he had to try hard not to jump up in excitement about Taiga finally losing the battle. Taiga bowed forward until his forehead almost touched the ground and he bit his lip, trying to not let the defeat break him too much. After all he had a plan and sacrifices had to be made so that it would work.

He heard how Domoto moved and seconds later his hand was under his chin, lifting his head up. “Such an obedient boy, aren’t you?”

Taiga shivered on the satisfaction he could hear out of his voice. After all he had just bowed to him, nothing more. And it had taken long enough for the other one to lose his patience in between, so he actually wanted to yell at him and ask him how overconfident he could be through such a small win, but again he stayed silent.

Domoto moved his thumb over Taiga’s bottom lip, but to his surprise nothing more happened. His hands moved to the blindfold next and when he removed it Taiga closed his eyes forcefully and with a groan. After two days in the dark his eyes complained a lot about the bright light piercing through the window.

“Then I think you can get ready for our trip. You might want to change your clothes and wash yourself before we leave,” Domoto said as he walked behind him and untied the ropes. Taiga pulled his arms to the front right away and as he had feared his wrists were a bloody mess. “Feel free to move through the castle on your own, I guess by now you know pretty well what would happen if you tried to escape.”

He formed a last triumphing smile before he left the room and Taiga stared after him kind of stunned. This had been easier and calmer than he had expected it, way too calm! He had thought that Domoto would definitely make some kind of move right away and that he would try to force Taiga into even more embarrassing or downgrading actions, but nothing had happened. He was free to move around, free from the torture, just the collar still remained. On that thought he brought his hands up to the cold metal and he let out a long sigh. As long as he wore this it definitely meant that Domoto wouldn’t trust him, at least not the way he trusted Reo. Which made Taiga worry for the boy right away again, because if Domoto found out even the slightest bit of what they talked about, Reo’s punishment would be as bad as his, if not even worse.

“Are you so shocked that you can’t even move?”

Taiga needed a moment to realize that someone had entered the room and when he looked up his eyes grew wide. “Reo! Are you crazy? Everyone will see you!”

“Calm down, I am allowed to be here!”

On that Taiga blinked at him in confusion and Reo escaped a small chuckle before he lifted up the small bag with the bandages he had brought the last time as well when he had treated his wounds.

“He knows that I will treat your wounds the best, so he has no other choice than to trust me.”

As true as his words were, they hurt a lot. But Reo wouldn’t bother with dark thoughts for now. He walked further into the room and helped Taiga back up to sit on the bed.

“Show me your wrists,” he told him and Taiga held them out to him without any kind of hesitation. With skilled hands Reo started treating them, but Taiga’s eyes were fixed on the other one’s face. Now that he could see again, Reo couldn’t hide the bruises from him anymore. They didn’t look that bad, not anymore, because Taiga was sure that a few days ago the boy had looked way worse.

“I’m sorry. All this happened because of me. If you hadn’t helped me-”

“Taiga stop,” Reo warned him as he was done with one hand and started with the other one, but he didn’t look up at him. “Domoto will be able to tell right away that something isn’t right if you start feeling sorry for me now. You have to promise to keep your strong front. Yell at me when I hurt you, fight back, do the same as always, because he won’t believe that one lost battle broke you and I don’t believe it either.”

Taiga fell silent on his scolding, because he was right. Of course he had decided to play by his rules for now, because Reo had told him to do so and he trusted him. But Domoto wasn’t allowed to know, which meant that he had to keep his attitude up as perfect as possible to not bring them both into an even worse situation.

“Okay done, then get ready, we’re leaving in less than an hour. Take some of my clothes if you want. I guess you really need to change, but I would suggest a shower first.”

Reo lifted up one of Taiga’s sleeves and sniffed on it with a played disgusted face on which Taiga hit him lightly on the shoulder and both boys escaped a chuckle.

“Thank you,” Taiga whispered as Reo got ready to leave again.

“Don’t get used to it. As long as you wear that collar I can hurt you at any time, be prepared for it!”

Taiga just nodded and Reo gave him a last brief smile before he retreated again. Staying longer would make it suspicious after all.

So Taiga had been right, the collar showed that Domoto didn’t trust him and why should he? He had just bowed to him, not more. It was no act of trust or loyalty. There was still more he had to face from now on, but he would keep fighting, up to the point where no one would suspect his and Reo’s plan and then he hat to give up again. Even though he feared the consequences already. He wouldn’t get away this easily each time he gave in after all.

***

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Abe asked with a smile as he stepped inside Shintaro’s room in the evening. The boy was sitting on his bed and moved his shoulders forth and back on his question, stretching his back carefully.

“I would say it is almost okay again. At least the fever seems gone and the pain isn’t really that bad.”

“But we will stay wait until at least tomorrow. We can’t risk you getting any infection on the way again, next time we might not be that lucky. We got some of Miyadate’s money, but it barely is enough to somehow get to Tokyo in the cheapest way possible and for that I need you in the best shape.”

Shintaro nodded understanding, because after all now they didn’t have to hurry anymore. Abe wasn’t a fighter in the first place and he wouldn’t be of any help right now, so they should try and arrive in Tokyo safe instead of fast. But something told him already that even though they would take up until a week to arrive in Tokyo as well the fight wouldn’t be over by then.

“Are you that worried about Taiga?”

Of course Abe could tell how restless the boy was and he could totally understand him, because after all they also didn’t know what happened to Saku and it drove him almost insane by now.

“A lot, yes. Since Mugen decided to move back to Tokyo everything got even weirder and crueler. Domoto freaked more easily and didn’t show mercy or patience at all. They are so close to get what they want that he seems like an impatient kid waiting to be allowed to open his birthday presents.”

“You were with them for so long. You really don’t know what their goal is?”

Again Shintaro shook his head and when Abe finally sat down next to him on the bed he let out a long sigh.

“I didn’t have the same access to information which people like Reo had. There were important meetings, some of us weren’t allowed to enter and I only overheard them once. There were just a few words I understood and I couldn’t really make sense out of them. Something about a troop called Storm Warriors. But I couldn’t make any connection or ask anyone about it. To be honest I had even forgotten until now, because it was already months ago that I overheard it.”

“So they could have been a random troop on their way, which they just destroyed or actually someone more important? Allies?”

“That would actually be the worst case I think. Mugen is huge and strong, I don’t want to imagine what they can do with the help of other troops.”

Abe nodded on that with a lost stare to the ground. Even though Mugen had been scattered all over Japan over the last years, there must be some wirepuller around Tokyo as well to coordinate things. But Taiga and Ueda had made clear that they had never heard of them and they were involved with the Titanium Triangle, which meant that even those three troops didn’t realize something until now.

“Let’s not drown into this too much. We can’t really help them from here.”

“We can pray for their safety at least,” Shintaro let out with a bitter smile and Abe clapped him supporting on the shoulder.

“Better than doing nothing I guess.”

***

Mugen had arrived with their trucks when it was already morning and the sun was about to rise. They were driving towards the west side of Tokyo, which was a good move, because Taiga remembered that this district wasn’t of any interest to neither the yakuza nor the fight clubs. This part of the city had been so badly destroyed that almost no one was coming out here. Not even the street fighters used this area.

While they were driving through the remains of the city though Taiga spotted a tall building and he saw light inside. But they were passing by not spending it any attention and even though there were people walking outside no one felt threatened on either side, which confused Taiga even more.

He tried to get a better look of the building and leant over the back of the truck and with Reo sitting next to him he didn’t have to fear that someone would think that he tried to escape.

“West Tokyo Fight Club?” Taiga read the words which were written over the huge wooden double door at the building. What would a fight club want out here? And did the others know about this? Suddenly his heart jumped on the thought of Kentaro and the others. If they knew about this fight club then the possibility of them making their way out here weren’t that bad. But was it good or bad? Did he want them to be part of this mess? Couldn’t they for once stay out of all the bad happenings?

“They just formed this club a few weeks ago and are actually our allies,” Reo explained in a low voice as he realized Taiga’s confusion. But he was careful to not raise his voice too much. Telling Taiga about those things was definitely something Domoto wouldn’t want.

“Why do you need a fight club as your alley when you normally destroy them?”

“This one is actually a troop it’s more or less fake. Something like a trap.”

On that Taiga’s heart dropped to his feet. That meant the other fight clubs in Tokyo weren’t aware of it, what if theirs would be the first one to fall into their trap or Myuto’s or Fukka’s club? Or even worse, what if it was already too late?”

He was ripped out of his thoughts when they had reached their destination a few minutes later. There were a few small hills around this area which made it a perfect hidden place. When they were told to leave the van, Reo stopped him before he could jump off it.

“Don’t forget about these or you will hurt yourself!” Reo warned him on which Taiga’s look darkened as he looked down on the chain which Reo was holding. Of course Domoto wouldn’t let him walk around freely the whole time. Inside the castle with all the guards around it was one thing, but in the trucks or outside Reo had been ordered to put the chain back to his collar. Even though Taiga knew that Reo was just playing his part perfectly he got way easier pissed at the boy than before through the way he was treating him again. Which was on the other hand an advantage for both of them, because one death glare from Taiga towards Reo when they finally jumped off the truck and Reo pulled “accidently” on the chains, was enough for the others to believe that they still hated each other.

Taiga took a look around and he wasn’t even surprised by the huge number of people anymore. They had become more and more over the last week anyways. His look went to their hideout next and again Domoto had searched himself a weird place to stay.

“A theater?”

“It’s really spacious and he can oversee everyone and everything from the stage when he wants to and stay backstage with his most trusted members if needed. But there are just a few rooms to stay, so most of the members are just gathering if they are told to. The whole theater would be filled if they were here all the time.”

Taiga felt the urge to count the seats inside after Reo had said that, but it would actually scare him, so he tried to not look at the seats too much when they walked inside and towards the stage. When he turned around he saw that there was also a second floor with seats and it seemed that a lot of members were gathering today for a meeting, but somehow he knew that he wasn’t part of it when Reo dragged him towards the backstage area.

He guided him down to a long corridor with a few guest- and dressing rooms before he briefly stopped at one of them, pointing at the door.

“This is my room,” Reo told him as if it was just a random fact, but it was really important for Taiga to know where it was. Who knew when this information would be important to him?

“And this is Domoto’s room,” he explained when they reached the last door on the corridor and Reo entered without knocking, knowing that Domoto was preparing for the meeting and wasn’t in his room.

Taiga took a look around, but it wasn’t that special and definitely not as spacious and noble as the castle, but the bed was still spacious and the covers seemed new as well. There was one more door which seemed to be a private bathroom. With the rooms being in the basement there were no windows, but the lights were quite bright, so that they didn’t seem too oppressive. There was also a wooden desk on the other side of the room, but the chair was placed at the wall side, so that the person who would sit there was facing the bed. Taiga stepped back after a moment, but Reo didn’t follow him.

“Ehm, are you not going to show me my room? Or do I have to sleep on the stage next to a chair again?” Taiga asked without any kind of amusement in his voice, because that possibility was actually quite big.

“No, you are out of that stage already, but that means he will go to the next one.”

“Which would be?” Somehow he didn’t even want to know after Reo had fallen silent for a while.

“This is your room,” Reo said hesitantly and pointed inside the room again on which Taiga raised an eyebrow at him.

“Wait you just said this is...oh.” When Taiga finally understood what he meant his look darkened even more. Of course he knew that he wasn’t going to be left alone for long, but that was a way too big jump, wasn’t it? What did he expect from him?

“You bowed towards him, now he wants to test your limits again, just to see where he can break you once more,” Reo said as if he read Taiga’s thoughts.

Taiga slowly shook his head, but then Reo’s hand was on his shoulder, squeezing it and Taiga looked up at him.

“Don’t break, bend!” He repeated his words from before, but somehow Taiga wasn’t sure how far he could bend before he would lose balance and fall.

“Today’s meeting is not of our concern, so you should rest and keep your strength for the night.”

Reo’s words made him shiver, because the image of Domoto entering Reo’s room in the castle appeared right away in his head making him tense, because this time it would be his room he would enter instead.

“He isn’t stupid. He won’t force you into anything. You know how much he loves games.”

That couldn’t really calm him down either, because his games could be actually crueler than if he just took what he wanted.

“Tomorrow is the first official meeting of Avernus and I have the feeling you will have to be present there.”

“Avernus?” Taiga asked perplex, because he knew the meaning behind this word and it gave him shivers. So Mugen’s allies would finally all come together the next day and of course Domoto wanted to show them their new obtained possession. Reo didn’t even have to explain this fact to him anymore, it was more than obvious. At least like this he could be sure that he was more or less fine for the following night, because Domoto needed him to be in the right mental state for the meeting or he would screw things up, from which Domoto wouldn’t benefit.

Taiga took another breath before he finally dared to step more into the room and Reo proceeded to take off the chains, but of course not the collar.

When Reo walked back to the door he gave him a really broken look and Taiga didn’t fail to see the moment of hesitance, the wish to step back into the room and pull Taiga into a hug and tell him that everything would be okay. But Reo won against his emotional side this time, getting his perfect smile back on as he turned around and closed the door. But Taiga didn’t miss the faint _I’m sorry_ the boy had voiced out, but then he heard the sound of the lock and silence followed.


	15. Chapter 15

Ueda and the others walked through half of the night and were lucky enough to get picked up by a truck driver somewhere along the road who dropped them off right at the eastern end of Tokyo. It was already dawn and normally the area around there was quite lively even in the morning hours, but Ueda sensed that something didn’t seem right.

“Where are we heading?” Watanabe asked kind of impatient when Ueda didn’t tell them their destination right away.

“The best would be to get to my fight club for now, but we have to be careful, this area isn’t the calmest one.”

Watanabe and Miyadate could tell that right away and with caution they proceeded northwards. As the Reapers’ area those streets were known to be loud and noisy, but something was off. It was way too quiet and most of the bars weren’t even open and the handful of people running around was either homeless or random drunken people.

“Please tell me that you know people around here which can guarantee that we won’t get into trouble,” Miyadate asked while they moved with quick steps as far away from the main road as possible.

“Yes I know some people around here, but I wouldn’t say that they could spare us any trouble, they were troublemakers themselves in the first place.”

“Good that they are no longer here.”

On the sound of an unknown voice they all turned, now standing back to back, because of course it hadn’t been one person approaching them, but at least a dozen, already circling around them.

“Who are you?” Ueda asked as he couldn’t really identify any of them as Ryosuke’s men and somehow their appearance also didn’t match the Reapers. They seemed more dangerous, wilder and crueler somehow.

“A dead person doesn’t need to know any names.”

On his words the two boys tensed right away and Ueda let out a quiet curse. Sure he knew that Watanabe and Miyadate were class 4 fighters, but fights with the yakuza were something new for them.

“Get them,” The man ordered and they jumped at them without a warning. A few drawing out knives or metal bars, others attacking with their bare fists. Ueda made sure to attack those with the knives first, leaving the less dangerous ones to the two boys.

“Get up again!” The man yelled at some of his fighters which Ueda had already thrown to the ground, but they got up over and over again.

A pained yelp behind him made Ueda turn around and he found Miyadate on one knee, his hand holding his shoulder and his opponent lunging out with the metal bar again, but the next moment Watanabe tackled him to the ground.

“Shota!” Miyadate wanted to help him even though he seemed to have the upper hand, but forgetting about his other opponents made him land on the ground the next moment when someone jumped on him and kicked him down. He rolled on his back and was fast enough to get his arms up to stop the kick which was directed to his face.

“UEDA, WATCH OUT!” The warning came from Watanabe, but too late. Ueda swirled around, but was kicked to the ground nevertheless. He kicked one person away, but three others followed and pinned him to the ground while the man who had ordered the others around approached him and pulled out a knife.

“STOP,” Miyadate tried to get up and help him, but he was also still on the ground and Watanabe got stopped by two more opponents as he tried to interfere.

“What the hell do you want?” Ueda asked, trying to reason with them, because after all they hadn’t actually given them a reason to attack.

“I told you that a dead person doesn’t need information,” the other one said laughing as he stepped over Ueda who tried to get out of the others’ grip, but he failed as they were almost lying on his arms and legs to be able to hold him down.

“You would have actually been a worthy member of our leader’s troop, but he is busy so I guess we are allowed to eliminate you instead,” the other one said as he lifted the knife. The boys shouted at him again, but he moved nevertheless, moving the knife down towards Ueda’s chest. Once more Ueda tried to free himself, but realizing that he wouldn’t make it he closed his eyes and held his breath, waiting for the impact and an impact was what he heard, but it was different from what he had thought would await him.

When he heard shouting around him and he opened his eyes again he saw how someone kicked his attacker to the ground after he had obviously pulled him off Ueda at the last moment. The ones which were holding him down got dragged away from him as well and when he turned to Watanabe and Miyadate, he was more than relieved to see that the two boys were okay as well.

“Guess that means you owe me something.”

On a familiar voice this time Ueda finally stood up and turned back to the person who had rescued him and now that he took a closer look he could already identify him from behind.

“Kamenashi?”

The one in question turned around after he was sure that his opponent wouldn’t stand up again and he faced Ueda with a kind of teasing smile. “The one and only,” He answered with a light bow towards him on which Watanabe raised an eyebrow and turned towards Miyadate who wasn’t spending him any attention at all, which made Watanabe walk over to him and hit him on the back of the head.

“What are you doing? You’re looking at him as if he was something delicious to eat,” Watanabe scolded him, on which Miyadate shook his head and finally looked away, facing Watanabe instead.

“I was just surprised, okay? Did you think a person like him would show up and save our asses?”

The question was fair, because for the boys someone like Kamenashi wasn’t exactly a person they would think of as a good fighter.

“I see you brought new company, don’t tell me you ditched Taiga?” Kamenashi asked playfully, but on the dark looks he received he bit his lip, realizing right away that something was going on. “Ueda, where is he?”

“Mugen took him,” Ueda answered in an almost inaudible voice as if he was ashamed to say it out loud, especially in front of Kamenashi.

“What? But he is not a high class fighter, why would-”

“You know about Mugen?” Watanabe interfered and Kamenashi looked at the two boys.

“Just for a few weeks to be honest. A lot happened and the whole city is in a huge chaos.”

“Where are Ryosuke and his men?” Ueda asked instead of bringing the topic back to Taiga. Kamenashi seemed to hesitate on his question, which made Ueda’s stomach twist slowly.

“The Reapers are gone…” He let out eventually and Ueda held his breath.

“What does that mean?” Miyadate asked.

“The Reapers were one of the pillars of the Titanium Triangle,” Ueda explained briefly before addressing Kamenashi again. “What is with Kitayama?”

“His troop is okay, as are we, but who knows for how long.”

“Wait you are a member of the Titanium Triangle?” Watanabe asked in disbelieve on which Kamenashi flashed him a brief, still bitter smile. “As the leader of the Exposers I wished I could have welcomed you in the city in a nicer way, but for now I think I can just offer you my help and a shelter.”

“And Ryosuke? Is he…?” Ueda asked, but didn’t have to continue as Kamenashi shook his head.

“As much as we know he was able to get away, but for about two weeks the Storm Warriors are out to search for him, but couldn’t find him.”

“Storm Warriors?” Miyadate repeated, but they all hadn’t heard the name before.

“The troop which destroyed the Reapers. The ones which attacked you. They claim the position as part of the Titanium Triangle, but you can’t really have a normal meeting with them. While their leader is kind of calm, most of his followers are wild killers.”

“What about the fight clubs?” Ueda asked instead of deepening the topic. The problems of the Titanium Triangle had to wait.

“Mugen didn’t move until now if that worries you, I heard the stories about the burned clubs,” Kamenashi said with an understanding look towards the boys. “But your club actually has other problems.”

“What other problems?” Ueda asked impatiently. Could they for once not be in the middle of the chaos?

“There was a special tournament against a new fight club in West Tokyo, but the rules were different and there were some problems and... losses.”

Ueda went pale in the matter of seconds. What else would be thrown at them? Wasn’t it bad enough that he had to worry for Taiga? Now he had lost someone while he was absent from the club as well.

“Maybe it’s better if you come back with me for now. Let me treat your wounds, give you a quick rest and then I will make sure that you can get to your club without running into even more trouble.”

No one actually thought about declining his offer. After all they needed to treat their wounds first, before they could even think about planning any further. And a rest was also something they couldn’t deny at this point.

The two boys stuck together, both still a little bit shaken about the rough welcoming to Tokyo, but Ueda couldn’t calm them down in his state. His thoughts were racing forth and back and of course Kamenashi realized his struggle and walked next to him, squeezing his shoulder once, but he didn’t speak. For now there were no words which could drag them out of their dark thoughts. They had to see for themselves, even though Ueda wasn’t sure if he could face everyone like this.

***

Taiga had been surprised that he was able to get at least some sleep. But who was he kidding, the stress of the last days had worn out his body completely and even though it had took him some time to fall asleep, because of the fear of someone entering the room while he was asleep, he had finally managed to get some rest.

But without a window he couldn’t actually tell the time and because he had slept at daytime he also couldn’t say if it was already night time or not. But his body was still tired and for a moment he thought about just sleeping some more, but somehow he was afraid that like this he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, not that he couldn’t be sure that Domoto would let him sleep in the first place.

On that thought he finally sat up and took a look around the room once more, but except for the heavy wooden desk and the chair there was nothing else. Maybe Domoto had a special dressing room for his clothes. With all the expensive looking shirts and jackets it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had a single room full of all those weird clothes. In this point the theater really fitted him also his perfect played smile was more of a professional actor than anyone else.

Trying to somehow distract himself Taiga decided to take a shower, because why shouldn’t he use the comfort he was given for once in a while? When he was back in the room he went over to the desk and sat down on the chair. Realizing how much the bed looked like a stage to a spectator from the desk a shiver ran down his spine. He continued to open the drawers one by one, but a few were empty and others had just random papers or other useless utensils inside. When he reached the last drawer on the right top he realized that it was locked. He opened one of the other drawers to search for the key before he closed it again with a sigh. He had just searched to all the drawers, hadn’t he? And why should Domoto actually hide the key right next to it? He didn’t even know what he expected to find inside the drawer.

Before he could think of any other place where the key could be hidden he heard the lock open and as if caught by doing something forbidden he jumped up and stood next to the desk when Domoto entered the room.

“Oh you are awake? I hope you had a good rest?”

His played nice tone made Taiga’s mood darken right away. But somehow Domoto seemed tired, so as expected he had maybe really slept the whole day. Their meeting seemed to have taken some time and knowing that there was an even bigger meeting tomorrow he wondered what they were up to. Reo hadn’t told him about any details, but somehow Taiga was sure that he would get to know a lot the next day.

Domoto vanished inside the bathroom for a while and came back out again in a white shirt and lose grey pants. It made Taiga almost laugh seeing him in such casual clothes.

“You should get some more sleep as well,” Domoto addressed him politely when he sat down and clapped with his hand on the other side of the bed.

Taiga tensed immediately, but what other choice did he have? As long as he didn't make a move as last time it would be fine, wouldn't it? If he refused here already again then Domoto would maybe find a new cruel game for him. Reluctantly and with a hateful glare Taiga approached the bed. Not refusing didn't mean that he couldn't at least throw all the hate at him with his eyes.

When he sat down Domoto gave him one of his satisfied smiles and lifted the covers for both of them to lie down.

Everything about this situation seemed so wrong to Taiga and he had to try hard not to crawl to the end of the bed just to get more distance between them. What freaked him out the most was that Domoto was still staring at him intensely and Taiga wasn't sure if he was allowed to turn away from him so he turned at least on his back. When Domoto moved he thought he had already made him angry, but then the lights got turned off, which didn't really make him relax. The room turned pitch black and he had to watch out that his breathing pace remained calm.

“Are you afraid?”

What a question? He really wanted an answer on that? As if he didn't know by now how much he drove Taiga to a corner with such actions. “If you behave you have nothing to fear. I'll take good care of you.”

Taiga flinched as his voice was louder this time. He had moved closer and Taiga could feel his breath on the side of his face which made it hard for him to stay calm.

“You know tomorrow is a really important day, so I would like to ask you to behave.”

“And when I don't want to?” Taiga let out not even in an offended tone, but he bit his lip nevertheless. He thought by now he could control his anger better, but some words still slipped him.

But this time he regretted his words as Domoto moved fast next to him and pulled him closer on the metal collar. Taiga froze instead of trying to attack. Every offense would just make it even worse. His own thoughts finally made him realize how much Domoto had actually already succeeded in breaking him.

“If you keep resisting, I keep playing,” Domoto whispered right next to his ear and Taiga felt how his body started shaking while Domoto pulled him even closer. Domoto could easily break him through direct force, but of course that wasn't satisfying him enough.

He stroke with the back of his hand over Taiga's hair and the boy closed his eyes forcefully even though it changed nothing. Bend, don't break! He repeated it in his head until he realized that he had held his breath when Domoto’s hand had moved down to his face. When he released a shaking breath a mocking chuckle was heard as a reply.

“Sleep well, you will definitely need your strength tomorrow,” Domoto said before he brushed his fingers over the boy's lips before he released him.

Taiga felt how Domoto turned away from him, but he couldn't do the same, he couldn't move. He was still shaking and it wasn't just out of fear, but also out of anger. Anger about getting so easily pushed to the abyss through simple words. How was he going to react at the meeting if he was told to do something he didn't want? Could he still refuse? Was he still strong enough to face the consequences?

With an almost numb feeling in his body he finally turned away from him. He tried again to calm down, but it was hard. When had Domoto succeeded in turning him into a frightened little kid? Taiga wasn't sure anymore if following Reo's suggestions was a good idea. What if he couldn't find the point to stop? What if he would cross the line and couldn't find his way back anymore?

Trying desperately to somehow get back at least a little bit of his defenses he closed his eyes and thought of his friends, his family. Ueda, Shintaro, Watanabe and Abe. Were they safe? Did they manage to come back to Tokyo? And did Shintaro actually survive Reo’s attack in the first place?

And what was about Kentaro and the others? With the new fight club, which was an alley of Mugen, things were messed up over there as well, he was sure of it. And then he flashed a bitter smile, happy that at least Kento and Fuma had gotten out before the next mess had started.

Even though all the thoughts weren't really the brightest they helped him to calm down in the end. They had faced a lot of shit until now, right? And they were still here, still fighting! They have lost precious friends on the way, but even that thought couldn't make him feel uneasy. Because if it was his turn this time then at least he could rest assure that Ueda was able to go on without him. Ueda had prepared the boy for a life without him, but wasn't it also the other way around? What if Taiga was the one this time who wouldn't come back?

He took a last deep breath and tried to keep the happy memories, the most chaotic ones and precious ones in his mind. Whatever would happen the next day he had to at least try and make the right choices, even if they might break him even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We reached the end of Call Out with: a Cliffhanger! And sorry, not sorry :P
> 
> As already explained now Comeback will follow, then War Child and at Combat all three stories will find together^^y


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